The Browns and the Smiths : In two volumes

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a I B RARY

OF THE
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Of ILLINOIS

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THE BROWNS MD THE SMITHS.

THE BROMS AND THE SMITHS.

BY

THE AUTHOR OF

" ANNE DYSAET," " ONWARDS/

&c., &c.

' Nurse : His name is Romeo, and a Montague ;
The only son of your great enemy."

Romeo and Juliet.

m TWO VOLUMES.
VOL. L

LONDON:

HURST AND BLACKETT, PUBLISHERS,

SUCCESSORS TO HENRY COLBURN,

13, GREAT MARLBOROUGH STREET.
1863.

The right of Translation is reserved.

London:

Printed by R. Gardner, Gloucester Street,

Regent's ParL

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

I CHAPTER I.

f

^ VERY HACKNEYED.

"I "There is nothing new under the sun,"

^ .said the wise monarch, and if this could
be said with truth nearly three thousand
years ago, when the world was not much
more than half as old as it is at present,

■$ how doubly stale must all things have
now become!

J You have all, my readers, heard, ad nau-

VOL. I. B

2 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

seam^ of the Montagues and Capulets —
the Yorkists and Lancastrians ; the names
are as familiar as that rivalship of race,
and hatred of families, which, in our days
at least, are not confined to princes and
nobles, but may be found in every
market town, in every country village,
and, probably, in every thieves' quarter in
the world.

But though there is nothing new, not
even similes, though originality is more
than ever impossible to us in these latter
days, yet the picture of human passions
and human follies, be it only true, how-
ever commonplace, never fails to make
us weep or laugh, as the occasion de-
mands. It is this which encourages me
to introduce to your notice the Browns
and the Smiths, and to hope that you will
even pardon an allusion to the Monta-

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 3

gu.es and Capulets. It is so much easier
to take up an old simile than to rummage
through one's daily decreasing stores of
memory for a new one. And then, the
hackneyed one has the advantage of
being understood by everybody ; even
by those — if in these days of universal
knowledge there be any such — who have
only heard of the Montagues and Capu-.
lets by way of reference.

Now, the Browns and the Smiths were
the Montagues and Capulets of the
Borough of Goslingford.

Goslingford is a thorough old English
country town, and, in the days of which
I speak, though these are not very re-
mote, had not been invaded even by a
railway. It consists of four streets, at
right angles, somewhat narrow, but very
picturesque ; the colouring, old, dusky,

B 2

4 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS.

and mellowed, and the tall chimneys, and
overhanging upper-stories, throwing, in
the summer sunshine, those shadows,
broad and deep, so dear to the heart of
the accomplished gentleman who writes
the " Stones of Venice." A broad river,
bearing a little — a very little — traffic on
its bosom, steals lazily by, past the little
town, and through green meadows, mostly
flat, onwards to the sea. Cattle repose in
these meadows, amid cowslips and butter-
cups, and under the shade of tall elms and
wide-spread oaks ; and low hills, not robed,
however, in '' the azure hue " of distance,
but chequered with the unmistakable
yellow and green of corn-fields or turnip-
fields, gird in the pleasant vale, which
has many a counterpart in rural England.
Thus, though a pretty and an interesting
old town, it is a very everyday one —

THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 5

being, in fact, in architecture and situa-
tion, the very commonest type of an Eng-
lish wwcommercial town. The people, too,
are the very kind of people who reside in
such towns, even in these days of rapid
and constant communication of every
place with every place else, when every-
body is becoming, outwardly at least, so
like everybody else, that national and
local distinctions, and even individual cha-
racter, seem in danger of being obliterated
by the modern monotony of refinement
and cultivation. But as yet, at Gosling-
ford, most people still dined at three
o'clock, and went out to tea-parties at six;
and it was, by many persons, thought very
fine and foolish of the Smiths, when they
gave a dinner-party at the irrational hour
of half-past six, at which the wine was
handed round by Thomas, indoors man-

6 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

servant, and Sarah, housemaid, instead of
being put on the table, that the guests
might drink with each other in the old
friendly way, when "people were not too
fine to enjoy themselves."

The tide of public feeling, that is, the
feeling of the polite world of Goslingford,
for a time rose decidedly on the Brown
side.

"Old Mr. Brown," said Miss Clara
Wellby, to her friend Miss Harriet Rich-
ards, "would never have permitted such
new-fangled nonsense. But people now-a-
days must all be finer and wiser than
their fathers. Perhaps next time the meat
will be all carved at the side-table."

"It is sad to see so much vanity and
display among people professing Christian
principles," rejoined Miss Richards. "We
shall hear of them playing cards next."

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 7

" Cards ! " cried Miss Clara ; " and
suppose they do take a hand at whist,
or have a sixpenny pool at commerce,
where is the harm ? People were just as
good and as wise long ago, when "

" Clara ! " said Miss Richards, with
grief and solemnity.

"Well, well," cried Miss Wellby, for-
bearingly, "we are too old friends to
quarrel, Harriet ; but I remember the time
when you could enjoy a rubber yourself"

" I was then in the ^'

"Never mind," cried Clara, impatiently,
" nobody but the Rector shall preach to me.
But about the Smiths, as we were saying.
The Browns would never have done such a
thing, and the Browns have a much better
right to be uppish than the Smiths. But
that is always the way — it is always your
people who have no right that set up to be

8 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

extra-genteel, and your people that talk
about equality and the rights of the people,
and all that sort of stuff, that are the most
jealous of their own dignity, and the most
hoity-toity with their servants. The Smiths
are ten times as exclusive as the Browns,
and yet the Browns visit people that would
never think of going near the Smiths."

^^Yery true," said Miss Eichards, but
in somewhat an unwilling tone, though
continuing with an air of candour, "and
the Misses Smith have been learning

o

botany, and astronomy, and geology, and
ever so many languages — very dangerous
knowledge, which has led many astray.
And young Smith away to London and the
Continent, as if he would not have been
far better and safer in Goslingford, in his
father's office, as his father was before
him."

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 9

" Yes, what served his father might have
served him. And to send his son to the
Continent to be brought up among
foreigners ! " exclaimed Miss Wellby, v/ith
ineffable contempt.

" And they are good people, too — mem-
bers of the Evangelical Alliance."
" Yes, but they are dissenters."

" That does not signify, if they are '*

" It does signify. I never knew any
dissenters but themselves I could endure ;
and as for the Evangelical Alliance, people
were quite as good, let me tell you,
Harriet, when there were no Evangelical
Alliances, and when people did not ' make
broad their phylacteries,' as they do
now."

" Thank you, Clara," said Miss Richards,
half in sorrow, half in anger ; "I know I
must bear the reproach."

10 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

^'Good morning now, Harriet, we won't
quarrel ; we are far too old friends for
that." And for the moment, excited and
triumphant. Miss Wellby departed.

She had not been gone half-an-hour
when Miss Richards' anger was utterly
overcome by her sorrow.

"Poor Clara!" she thought, "how I
wish I could do something for her I "

For twenty years this had been one of
the most earnest wishes of this good crea-
ture ; but aU her attempts had ended some-
thing in the manner of the above. Clara
always came off triumphant and affronted.
Fortunately the affront never lasted long.
On the present occasion it only lasted
till the next day. Hearing the following
morning that Miss Richards was laid up with
influenza, down came Clara through the fog
and rain, at the risk of catching the complaint

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 11

herself, and nursed and watched over her
old friend as if she had been her child or
her mother. Clara Wellby was as kind a
soul as any in Goslingford. Wherever
there was sickness or distress, there was
Clara Wellby sure to be found, comforting,
helping, scolding. She had little to give,
but she gave it almost too freely. No baby
head had pillowed on her bosom, no soft
lisping voice had awakened in her heart
those thrills of tender delight which parents
only know ; but I challenge the wifehood
and motherhood of England to produce
more benevolent or more generous feelings
than those which moved the actions of
Miss Clara Wellby.

Miss Wellby and Miss Richards were two
middle-aged spinsters, or perhaps they were
somewhat beyond middle age. They were
both natives of Goslingford, and . though

12 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

perpetually quarrelling, had been fast
friends from early childhood. They were,
however, about as unlike in taste, charac-
ter, disposition, and fortune as it was
possible for two persons to be.

Miss Wellby was the daughter of a
former Rector of Goslingford, — Miss
Richards owned the more humble parent-
age of an auctioneer and land-agent.
When young their families had moved in
rather different "spheres," but Clara
Wellby — handsome, lively, admired, and
sought after even by the county magnates
— was not the woman to disown the friend-
ship of her plain, timid, humble school-
fellow, whom she had always patronized
and protected. Clara had had many
admirers, and one or two advantageous
offers, which she had declined. Indeed, she
was in the habit of treating love-matters as

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 13

a jest, though it had been whispered that
an early disappointment had something to
do with her hard-heartedness. But be that
as it may, she never wore the willow, nor
was the milk of human kindness ever
curdled in her by the slightest infusion of
acidity.

At thirty years of age Harriet Richards
was deeply impressed by the preaching of
one of the Goslingford curates, and from
that time forth gave up cards, novels,
fashion, and might be seen constantly
going about in a bonnet shaped like a
Quaker's, a lanky dress, and a hideous
shawl, with a basket of tracts on her
arm.

Ten years afterwards her father died and
left her a large fortune — a great change to
Harriet, who had been brought up in a
very homely and frugal manner, and who

14 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

had no mind above her destiny. At first
she hardly knew what to do with it, for,
being no hoarder, she felt it ought to be
spent. So she took a large, gloomy house,
which she furnished in a dull, tasteless,
expensive way — had a number of lazy
servants who imposed on her, innumerable
fat dogs and sleepy cats, and a large car-
riage and pair of horses, which she always
feared might be over-fatigued. She also
bestowed great sums on religious societies,
and gave lavishly to the poor — particularly to
those who admired the Evangelical Alliance.

And when the old Rector died, leaving
his daughter with very scanty means, she
offered her old friend a home in her house
and a share of her wealth.

Very unwonted drops glistened in Clara^s
bright eyes, and she wrung her friend's
hand painfully.

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 15

" No, no, Harriet, it will never do. We
should quarrel all day long. The sight of
that heavy sideboard, and those great green
blinds, would throw me into low spirits.
I must have something cheerful to look at,
and every time I got into the coach I should
fancy I was going to a funeral. And then,
you know, I must have my novel in the
evening, and that would make you miser-
able, and you would think it so worldly in
me to have my dresses made like other
people, though, by the by, I understand
it is quite the thing now for your very
pious people to go visiting the poor, and
preaching to miners, dressed out in
silk and flowers and jewellery. Every-
body must preach now-a-days, even
fine ladies, so you see, it would be quite
the thing for you, Harriet, to have a decent
bonnet."

16 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

Miss Wellby spoke quickly. She was not
fond of demonstrations, and was eager to
prevent her friend pressing her offer. She
could scarcely keep from embracing Harriet,
and crying heartily as it was. Miss
Richards now murmured something about
" vanity," on which Clara asked trium-
phantly—

" If there was not quite as much vanity
in paying two shillings a yard for a ribbon,
when one at one shilling would do just as
well, as in putting it on like other people
after it was bought ?"

Miss Wellby did not go to live with Miss
Richards, but took the tiniest of cottages,
with the tiniest of gardens, quite at the
other end of the town, near the church, and
close to the large house where the Browns
lived. But though the smallest, it was the
very neatest and brightest little abode in

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 17

tlie county; and its neatness had none of
the ponderous formality which, as Clara
said, made poor Harriet's furniture so de-
pressing. Cheerful was the pattern of the
Kidderminster carpet on the floor, and the
shilling paper on the walls of the little
drawing-room; cheerful the snowy muslin
curtains and the glass of gay flowers on
the table, — cheerful as ]\liss Clara herself, .
in her fashionably-made dresses and cheap
stylish bonnets, which were always becom-
ing to her still handsome face, and tall,
straight, almost youthful figure. " What a
contrast !" said everybody, when Clara was
seen walking with her friend; the little,
awkward old-maidish figure of the latter,
clad in the dingiest and dearest of silk
dresses, made in the most ludicrously old-
fashioned manner, surmounted by an ugly
shawl, ungracefully put on, and her plain,
VOL. I. c

18 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

long-chinned face, shaded by her Quaker-
bonnet.

I would not, however, have the reader
to suppose, from anything I have said, that
Miss Clara laughed at religion, for that
would be giving an altogether wrong idea
of her character. She only laughed at her
friend's fashion of it ; and her friend thought
it could not be genuine in any other
fashion.

One point, however, these ladies had in
common — they were very fond of a thorough
good gossip.

" What are our tongues made for but to
talk?" said Miss Clara.

" Yes, dear Clara, but," sighing, " we
must not forget that the tongue is a world
of iniquity."

" It is St. James says that, Harriet, and
I thought all your kind of people did not
think much of St. James."

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 19

" Really, Clara, your levity-

" Well, at any rate, you would not have
thought much of him if he had been any-
body else but St. James."

Now Harriet and Clara were almost
equally illogical, but Clara had always the
advantage of readiness ; and perhaps, after
all, in all arguments, readiness is of more
importance than logic, if victory be the
desirable point.

" But,'* says the reader, " what has be-
come all this time of the Browns and the
Smiths?"

c 'Ji.

20 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

CHAPTER II.

HANNAH BROWN.

William Brown and Thorns' Smith were
two solicitors, of great respectability, and
the chief people in Goslingford. In every-
thing they were rivals. At elections, Mr.
Brown was agent for the Reds, and Mr.
Smith for the Greens. Mr. Brown was a
zealous Churchman, Mr. Smith a dissenter.
Mr. Brown liked everything old — old houses,
old gardens, old acquaintances, old fashions.

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 21

In idea he belonged to the times of our
grandfathers. He was a man professing
religion ; but his religion was not of the
shape prevailing just at present. It had
considerable resemblance to that of Miss
Clara Wellby. As I have said, he was a
Churchman, but he almost equally repu-
diated Tractarianism and Evangelicalism,
and he would cordially echo Miss Wellby 's
opinion that people were quite as good
when there were no such things. Mr.
Smith, or rather Mr. Smith's family, were
innovators, as far at least as society at
Goslingford would permit innovation ; for
though Goslingford politics were, on the
whole, liberal, and though the municipal
and electioneering orators at times talked
largely of " progress" and " enlightenment,"
and "keeping pace with the age," Gosling-
ford, in its heart of hearts, did not like

22 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS.

anything very different from what it had
always been accustomed to. It looked
coldly on Mr. Smith's late hours, and
scientific, extra-fashionable daughters. It
commended Hannah Brown, who had never
been at a ladies' college, and who had never
been seen walking out either with a ham-
mer or a japanned tin case. Goslingford
admired Mrs. Ellis's writings amazingly,
and presented the "Women of England,"
and " The Wives of England," on birth-
days and wedding-days, to all its female
acquaintance. Yet the Smiths, though
much more commented upon and criticised
than the Browns, seemed quite as popular.
The ladies copied their London dresses, and
though they did dine at half-past six, their
invitations were rather sought after, and
their parties were not, as might have been
supposed, too formal for enjoyment. Most

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 23

of the genteel people in Goslingford visited
both the Browns and the Smiths, but all
sided with one or other of these factions.
Miss Clara Wellby was a Brownite, Miss
Harriet Richards was a Smithite; though
Miss Clara allowed that the Miss Smiths
dressed well, and Miss Harriet admitted that
Hannah Brown was a modest, nice girl.

Nobody ever invited the Browns and
the Smiths to the same party. Not that
the Browns and the Smiths had quarrelled
in so outrageous a manner as not to be on
speaking terms. That is not the fashion
now-a-days, except among very foolish
people. On the contrary, Mr. Brown and
Mr. Smith forgave each other their mutual
offences; at least, they forgave each other
as Christians, if not as men and lawyers.
The Browns and the Smiths did not

" With brawls disturb the quiet of the streets."

24 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

When Mr. Brown and Mr. Smitli met each
other, they bowed with great politeness.
So did Miss Brown and the Miss Smiths.
They were Browns and Smiths, you see,
and not Montagues and Capulets ; and
whoever heard of two respectable elderly
attorneys drawing their swords, or even
doubling their fists, English fashion, at
each other, however great their anta-
gonism ?

Yet there is nothing new under the
sun, and the very same spirit animated
the commonplace Browns and Smiths in
our own vulgar days, that wrought on the
Montagues and Capulets "in the brave
days of old." That pretty little table in
Mr. Smith's drawing-room, at Tudor
Lodge, is, after all, only a bit of maple-
wood, with exactly the same properties as
any other bit of maple-wood. Cotelettes de

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 25

mouton a la souhise are^ as to all sub-
stantial qualities, only good English mut-
ton chops, with a little dandified sauce
and frippery frying ; and so Montagues
and Capulets were only a more aristo-
cratic and refined kind of Browns and
Smiths. Or were they more refined ?

I am not by any means certain that a
modern grocer, of average fortune and
education, would not be shocked if he
were, by chance, to find himself in my
Lady Capulet's saloon, by the want of
refinement in the furniture, and the want
of manners in the company.

But, though no Brown had ever run
any Smith through the body, tongues can
pierce as well as swords, and the Browns
and the Smiths had many sad tales to
relate to their several confidants, of mu-
tual ungentlemanliness and unfairness —

26 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

tales which, somehow or other, always
oozed out, in a quiet way, to the whole
public.

A generation or two back Mr. Smith's
progenitor had been a clerk in the office of
Mr. Brown's grandfather, or great grand-
father; but, having quarrelled, the Smith
of that day set up for himself. While he
had been with Mr. Brown it had always
been supposed that he shared that gentle-
man's sentiments ; but, after the separa-
tion, it was discovered that his opinions
were exactly antagonistic. He was imme-
diately taken by the hand by the anti-
Brown faction in the borough, and, ere
long, was put forward for the town-council,
and, in time, for the mayoralty. From
that time the Smiths had held their heads
as high as the Browns. But even after
this elevation, the elite, the creme de la

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 27

creme, of Goslingford, did not, for a time
visit the Smiths. It was even hinted that
they were pushing and vulgar; but we all
know, ever since we wrote in copy-
books, that perseverance, like faith,
removes mountains. And so the per-
severance of the Smiths removed even the
mountain of country-town exclusivism.
The Smiths were a race of people who
never lost anything for want of trying
for it. Their pluck — the Brownites called
it brass — was wonderful. Where the •
Browns were too proud or too lazy to
befriend themselves, the Smiths stepped in
preventing them. They ought to have
been celebrated in Mr. Smiles's book as
remarkable instances of Self-Help. But,
notwithstanding, the Smiths were good
people enough — at least the Smiths of
the generation of which I am writing.

28 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

What the Smith — the original Smith,
who so suddenly changed his po-
litical and religious principles — was, it
does not now concern me to say, though
I may have my own opinion. To say the
least of it, he chose an unfortunate time
for his character, if it was a highly pro-
pitious one for his interests, though the anti-
Brown faction always upheld his recanta-
tion as an act of magnanimous candour.
But our Smith — the Thomas Smith al-
ready mentioned, was a conscientious dis-
senter— at least, he thought so himself — an
indulgent and fond father, and, though
with a sharp eye to his own interest, an
honest and honourable man, whatever the
Brownites might say, and wonderfully
benevolent for a lawyer. He would have
been friendly even with Mr. Brown, if Mr.
Brown would have let him; but that

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 29

elderly solicitor, or attorney, as he called
himself — "attorneys, in his day, were not
ashamed of being attorneys " — rode, as his
rival said, such a high horse, that it was
impossible.

'' He always treats me as if I were no
better than a pettifogger," said Mr. Thomas
Smith, not unreasonably affronted, " as if I
were going to refuse Sir George's business
when it was offered to me, with my large
family to provide for. It is very different
with Brown, who has only that girl
Hannah, poor man ! " added Mr. Smith,
with a momentary feeling for the family
misfortunes of his rival ; then adding, with
a mingling of compassion and bitterness, as
he continued his after-dinner tete-d-tete with
his wife, '^ I believe he thought I was glad
when that poor boy of his died."

'^Then, my dear," said Mrs. Smith— who

80 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

was a quick-tempered woman, and to her
kind husband a most affectionate wife, and
the most thorough-going of his partisans,
though the Brownites said that in his
marriage even he had "had an eye to the
main chance," — " I am astonished at his
wickedness. I did not think even old
Brown would have been so uncharitable.
And to indulge in such feelings, too, after
such chastenings as he has had. What a
long illness poor Mrs. Brown's was, and
then the little girl that died of measles.
His sorrows seem to have had no
effect on his stony heart. I never knew
such an obstinate man. I have no patience
with him."

Now, unlike his wife, it was whe.n he
thought of his sorrows that Mr. Smith had
a little patience with his rival. He could
at such moments even make some allow-

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 31

ance for Mr. Brown's bitterness and obsti-
nacy, however much they might gall him
at other times. Now as he looked from
the pleasant though spirited face of his
wife, and from the comfortable dessert and
wine on the table at his three handsome
daughters swinging their younger brother
in a swing which hung from a high tree at
the further end of the flower-decked lawn,
he thought with pity of poor Brown in his
great old house by the church, with only
poor little Hannah stealing about the
gloomy, old-fashioned chambers.

After a few seconds' pause, Mrs. Smith
continued —

" Even if he had lived, poor puny little
fellow, he would never have been a match
for our Edgar ; and as for Hannah, I am
quite sorry for her, poor little ignorant,
unformed thing ! "

32 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

And Mrs. Smith glanced througli the
window, too, with looks of proud compla-
cency.

*'How do you know, my dear, that she
is ignorant and unformed ? I did not know
you had ever spoken to her. Clara Wellby
says she is clever."

" Oh, but you know all Miss Wellby's
geese are swans, and she will hear of
nothing but perfection in those Browns.
They are church people, you know, and
with Miss Wellby that is everything. But
I must go and see about Edgar s room — he
is to be home to-morrow."

And with a proud mother's delight in a
first-born son, Mrs. Smith went joyfully to
prepare for the return of hers after some
years' absence.

Smiths and Browns have their pride as
well as Montagues and Capulets, and to

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 33

them, as to the whole human race, belongs
the same tale of anxious affection,
triumphant love, disappointment, sorrow,
and sadness — the old, old tale, never new,
but ever pathetic.

As I have already said, no railway had
yet reached Goslingford. There was a
station, however, about ten miles from the
place ; and a vehicle, something between an
omnibus and an old-fashioned stage-coach,
conveyed passengers to and from that
borough. About a dozen miles further,
upon the line of railway, there was a manu-
facturing town of some importance — of
great importance to the Goslingford ladies,
as most of their fashions were derived from
thence, and most of them when young
had been sent to a fashionable boarding
school, there to be " finished." To have
been "finished" at Miss Slater's was for a

VOL. I. D

34 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

long time at Goslingford synonymous with
being in possession of every accomplish-
ment the heart of woman could desire or
the eye of man admire. But the Miss
Smiths had taken a higher flight. They had
been " finished " in London at a " Ladies'
College/' where there were lecturers on all
the sciences, professors of all the languages
and literatures, and where " artists of
celebrity " gave instruction in every kind of
art. At this feminine university the
Miss Smiths learned " everything," — at
least so said Goslingford gossip, with a
curious mixture of awe and contempt. No
wonder, then, that the Miss Smiths so far
outshone the Goslingford ladies in general,
and Hannah Brown in particular — poor
Hannah Brown never even having been at
Miss Slater's. Goslingford had been of
opinion that Mr. Brown had done wisely

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 35

" not to turn Hannah's head " by sending
her to London ; and Miss Wellby remarked
that ^* people long ago were much more
amusing and much less conceited when
they had not learned so many things."
But it was a different affair not sending
her to Miss Slater's. Even Miss Wellby
could not defend that. It was making poor
Plannah inferior to other Goslingford girls,
and with William Brown's fortune, too,
and Hannah an only daughter !

Hannah said nothing — showed nothing,
but she felt it keenlyh erself, poor girl! In
her simple heart she probably overrated the
advantages to be obtained at Miss Slater's
— as, indeed, we are all apt to overrate
those advantages which we have just missed
obtaining.

Hannah did her best to supply herself
the deficiencies of her education. She

D 2

36 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

practised diligently at the handsome piano
her father had given her (the only new-
thing in the house), and accompanied her
performance with her own wood-notes wild.
She copied the ancient arches, the picturesque
tower, and the old porch of the church
with photographic accuracy, and she made
sketches of all the trees and all the decay-
ing stumps in the neighbourhood. She
even tried her hand at bead mats, at wax
flowers, at potichomanie. But somehow or
other all her own performances seemed to
herself to be failures — not like other
people's. And certainly they were not
very like other people's — in Goslingford, at
least.

Once, when Hannah Brown had taken
courage to show one of her little pencil
sketches to an acquaintance — the subject,
an ancient oak, with one green branch, and

THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 37

the others sapless and leafless, a gipsy-cart,
and one or two figures beneath it, and a
donkey in the background — the lady in
question had looked at it, and in a careless
tone, without seeming to see it, had pro-
nounced it " very pretty," and then gone
on to describe the exquisite view of Tin-
tern Abbey, by moonlight, in water-
colours, done at the college by Miss
Venetia Smith. Poor Hannah never
showed her drawings again. She was
proud and shy, and loved approbation,
and such people have a keen sense of mor-
tification.

Hannah's attempts at the sciences were
very humble. She had read Hugh Miller's
^' Testimony of the Rocks," Mrs. Somer-
ville's "Physical Geography," and a few
popular papers in the publications of the
Messrs. Chambers. She had made a most

38 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

valiant attempt at ^' Kosmos," and the
" Connection of the Physical Sciences," but
had been utterly routed by the hard words.
She had tried mathematics, but had never
even reached the jpons asinorum, it was so
intolerably dry, and the dread conviction
began to force itself upon her mind that
her capacity by no means equalled her
ambition. What wonderful girls the Miss
Smiths must be I — and how superior to
her ! Now, if Hannah Brown had been
an angel, she would, of course, have been
delighted to be inferior to the Miss Smiths,
but she was no angel — only a girl, though
equal, perhaps superior, to the average in
amiability ; therefore she was vexed and
depressed. She had been taught French,
for that could be acquired in Goslingford,
and she had purchased a book called
" German without a Master," by means of

THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 39

which she had endeavoured to make her-
self mistress of that crabbed but romantic
tongue. She did not, however, acquire
facility in it with that rapidity which
the preface of her book promised, and
again poor Hannah felt a keen sense of
inferiority, not only of attainment, but of
ability. For general literature she had a
greater aptitude, and, during her long,
mostly solitary days, devoured quantities
of books, her father allowing her to sub-
scribe to as many libraries as she pleased.
For some few years, reading was to Hannah
at once a pursuit and end ; but at twenty
years of age, the cui bono of that, and of
her whole existence, began to suggest itself
painfully to her mind. Oh ! how weary
seemed her life in that silent, empty house !
and how purposeless !

Hannah Brown had read and admired

40 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

Keble — privately — for he was tabooed by
Goslingford in general, and she knew

" The daily round, the common task,
Furnish all we ought to ask ; "

and that they did not to her, was surely a
proof that she had an ill-regulated mind.
Sometimes the large, tall, substantial red
house with the high flight of steps up to
the invisible-green door, seemed to Hannah
almost as silent and sepulchral as the
heavy, square tomb, like a huge stone
trunk, which covered the mortal parts of
her mother, sister, and brother. They had
been dead for years, but she could re-
member them all, and sometimes, as she
wandered about in the walks of the longr
garden at the back of the house, between
the rows of espaliers, looking vacantly at
the York and Lancaster roses, and the
Canterbury bells, she used to fancy that

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 41

if they — not the roses and the bells, but
the above named individuals — had been
alive, she should never have been dull.
She often wished that, instead of being
covered with that monstrous box-ottoman,
their grave, with a cross or a circle at the
head, had been planted with flowers. It
would have been so sweet — quite an object
in life —to tend them. But that frightful
tomb with the spiked iron-railings all
round !

Hannah never looked at it, but the
quaintly horrible problem would present
itself to her mind, of how its tenants
would ever get out on the Resurrection
morning. She knew it was a very pro-
fane idea, and one that would fill all Gos-
lingford, and more especially her father,
with horror and indignation, so she sedu-
lously kept it to herself.

42 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

Goslingford was devoted to the box-
ottoman and anti- resurrection style of
monument, to an extent that, had the
orthodoxy of the place not been beyond
suspicion, might have led to a suspicion of
Sadduceeism, and it despised all mediaeval-
ism and innovation, as Puseyite and weak-
minded. Crosses and circles, roses and
immortelle, might be very well in Pere la
Chaise, — but in Goslingford churchyard!
The sound English common-sense of the
place revolted at such frivolity !

And so poor Hannah Brown could find
no refuge from the comfortable dreariness
of her life in the poetic piety of visiting her
dead mother's grave. It was hard. She
should have liked so much in some way,
at once tangible and beautiful, to have
connected herself still with her sweet, sad
mother, who had faded away so gently into

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 43

the " silent land." Nor had she ever
found any break, in the too smooth flowing
current of her life, from the rocks and
shoals of love affairs — unfortunate or other-
wise. At twenty years of age, Hannah
Brown had never even had, as far as she
knew, so much as the ghost of a lover. It
was rather mortifying.

There were not very many eligible beaux
in Goslingford, still several of the girls had
lovers ; and at evening parties all of them
had more partners than Hannah Brown.

It was very — very mortifying. Hannah
knew that a superior mind would have been
above being mortified for such a cause ; but
she wcLs mortified, ergo, she could not have
a superior mind. And now what was the
cause of this most mortifying fact ? Why
were Miss Venetia, and Miss Julietta, and
Miss Laura Victoria Smith for ever on the

44 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

floor, while poor Hannah Brown acted no
more prominent part than that of wall-
flower ? Often — undignifiedly, passionately
often, had she asked the question of herself,
and asked it even with tears.

Was she uglier than other people ? She
had stood in front of the old oblong mirror
in an ebony frame, which had been nailed
lengthwise on the end of her bedroom to
supply the place of a cheval glass, and
had asked herself this question dozens and
dozens of times ; and, it might be her
vanity, but the plate-glass oracle had never
answered " Yes." She could not see any-
thing repulsive in her young, slender,
slightly drooping figure — in her shy brown
eyes, nor in her long chestnut ringlets.
Nay, these latter she was quite sure were
pretty. What could it be ? What was
she to do ? Sometimes she thought of

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 45

adopting a more showy, flouncy style of
dress — like the Miss Smiths ; but when it
came to the point, somehow Hannah always
felt she could not go out so. People would
laugh at her, and say she was copying the
Smiths, and "anything rather than that,"
thought Hannah Brown. And besides,
surely her own style of dress became her
better; and though she scarcely acknow-
ledged it to herself, and doubtless she
might be mistaken, she instinctively pre-
ferred her own appearance to that of the
Miss Smiths.

And now, good reader, I fancy I hear
you say : " What a conceited girl !" But
before you pass sentence on poor Hannah
Brown, think for a moment. You do not
mean to tell me that you really think your-
self ugly. You do not mean to say, 0
my lady reader ! that you have never

46 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

viewed with satisfaction your fair face in
that glass which rests on your toilette : or,
if per force, candour has compelled you to
acknowledge that there are fairer faces
than your own, have you not been amply
consoled by remarking the symmetry of
your figure, and the elegance of your car-
riage ? or, if your figure had some faults,
did you not lay the flattering unction to
your soul, that your countenance had an
expression, your presence an air, your
tout ensemble^ a '''' je ne sais qaoi^^ in fact
(you know I don't set up for originality),
which amply atoned for any mere defect of
form ? As for you, my gentleman reader,
you, of course, being a man, never com-
promised your dignity by fidgeting over
the sit of your necktie, or admiring the
exquisite twirl of your moustache. If you
have never done any of these things, then

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 47

condemn Hannah Brown ; but don't expect
me to do the same. Shocking as it may-
seem, I prefer persons who have a little
personal vanity. It makes them so much
more agreeable, provided they have a little
confidence as well, which poor Hannah
Brown had not. Poor Hannah Brown
then had failed to solve the problem of her
own unattractiveness. It had never struck
her that to be interesting, one must be
interested.

The company of the Goslingford beaux
in general, and their topics of conversation,
were generally terribly tedious to poor
Hannah. She always fancied that they did
not think her worthy of any better conver-
sation. It had not as yet struck her that
they might have no better, or that ladies
might be found, in tolerably plentiful
numbers, who could really be animated and

48 THE BROWNS Ami THE SMITHS.

charmed by what seemed to her so flat and
unprofitable.

Hannah was one of those persons who
cannot feign. When she was weary she
looked weary. I do not praise her for this,
and if there be any persons who consider
impoliteness a duty, she did not deserve
even their commendation. She tried hard
to seem lively and interested, but it would
not do. It was quite beyond her powers.
In spite of herself she looked absent and un-
interested. She was generally considered " a
good-natured kind of girl — but no fun in
her at all." I fear poor Hannah Brown was
Sifemme incomprise, though it seems very odd
that anybody with such a name — Hannah
— and Brown! should be anything so
"novel-like." I do not mean new. Oh no, it
must be a mistake, there could be no such
foreign monster in Goslingford — and that

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 49

very ordinary Hannah Brown of all people
in the world —Hannah Brown, whom even
that zealous Smithite, Miss Richards,
praised because she " never flirted." Ah !
Miss Richards, —

"Things are not what they seem."

Quiet, sensible Hannah Brown, who never
dressed fine, would have had no objection
to flirt, as you call flirting, if she could
have found an eligible opportunity; for —

" The lads like lasses,
And the lasses, lads too "

And were they not meant to do so ?

VOL. I.

50 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

CHAPTER III.

HANNAH brown's FIRST ADVENTURE.

The only diversity in the even tenor of
Hannah Brown's existence at Goslingforcl
was an occasional expedition to the town of
Buttonborough — the same large manufac-
turing town, illuminated by that seat of
every accomplishment (if not of all the
sciences), Miss Slater's establishment for
young ladies.

Hannah went to Buttonborough to shop,

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 51

sometimes accompanied by Miss Clara
Wellby, whom, though no relative, she
always called "Aunt Clara;" and some-
times alone. When alone she always
took an early dinner with old Mrs.
Beddoes — a deaf old lady above seventy,
who' only heard through an ear-trumpet,
and who was very fat and sleepy, and
always treated Hannah as if she were ten
years old. It was on one of those lively
occasions in the "leafy month of June,"
when the days were long, the sun bright,
the roads dusty, and the evening breeze
still easterly and chill, that Hannah Brown
was returning by train from Button-
borough to the Dustwhirl Road Station,
whence she was to be conveyed home by
the Goslingford omnibus. Hannah had
taken a cab, which had carried herself and
her purchases to the Great Buttonborough

E 2

52 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

station, where diiferent trains were starting
from various platforms for all points of the
compass. There was a great bustle, and
Hannah was rather late. She almost feared
losing the train, which would have been an
awful catastrophe, as she had ''promised
her father faithfully " (what is ]jromising
faithfully ?) that by that very train she
should certainly be home ; and she well
knew the fuss and anxiety that would per-
vade the great red house by the church,
should she not keep her appointment. In
her mind's eye she saw her father with
knitted brows, and taking out his watch
every instant, pacing up and down the
paved alley by the churchyard railings,
which led from their house to the main
street, muttering as he walked, with an
anxious heart and an irritated temper.
He would not say much to her, Hannah

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 53

knew, but she dreaded beyond everything
the frowning face, and the gloomy evening,
and the cold " Good night, Hannah," which
would end it.

Hannah had all her life been afraid of
her father, and yet he was a fond father,
and not by any means a bad-tempered man.
If she could only have coaxed him a little
when he was irritated, all would have been
well. But she could not do that, she was
too frightened. It was this fear which had
all her life weakened her love for him — this
fear, coupled with a feeling, only partly
acknowledged, that he ought to have done
more to make her life pleasant.

^'Surely," thought Hannah, "he can
never have been young." And there
Hannah was right. William Brown never
had been young, and he had no sympathy
with youth. A strange compound of anti-

54 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

quated prejudices, high moral principles,
honourable feelings, strong business sense,
intellectual narrowness, formal habits,
warm but undemonstiative feelings, and
narrow sympathies, he had no more con-
ception of his daughter Hannah than of the
man in the moon, if modern enlightenment
w^ill permit me the dear old simile of my
childhood.

And thus father and daughter lived
and loved — yes, loved ; for either would
have died for the other. But their mutual
love added little to the happiness of
either. In an economico-affectionate point
of view, it was a sheer waste of the pre-
cious material, and no " Moral Wealth of
Nations " had shown them how it might
be turned to account.

Hannah, however, saved the train on the
present occasion, tumbling in, head-fore-

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 55

most, with her arms full of parcels, just as
the carriages began to move and the
whistle to shriek, tripping, as she did so,
over the legs of a male fellow-passenger,
who prevented her further fall by catching
her in his arms.

Sensitive Hannah Brown blushed up
to her forehead at her own awkwardness,
and could scarcely find voice to say —

" I beg your pardon."

^' Oh ! pray don't mention it ! " said the
gentleman addressed, who was young and
well-looking, though with a certain air of
superciliousness, which was not altogether
becoming, and made Hannah Brown feel
more vexed still. Or perhaps I was wrong
in the term superciliousness. There was
too much vanity, and too little pride in it
for superciliousness. Will the reader, with
a classical taste, and a chaste ear for Ian-

56 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

guage, permit me to call it patronisingness ?
Hannah's fellow-traveller looked as if there
could be no doubt that he was very supe-
rior to the world in general ; but as if, at
the same time, he was good-humouredly
resolved to tolerate and patronise it, and
to be amused with, rather than contemp-
tuous of, its inferiority. He might have
been a London-bred man, coming down to
see his country cousins, and then, of
course, the frame of mind I have indicated
would have been quite natural. Country
cousins always are so inferior in sense, and
wit, and knowledge to their London rela-
tives. And then their dress ! What can
be so outrageously absurd? — though it is
the same that was worn in town only
last year.

Hannah Brown never spoke to her
fellow-passengers in — ^railway trains, I was

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 57

going to have said — but I mean in the
railway train between Buttonborough and
Dustwhirl Road Station, for she had never
been in any other. She was not sorry,
however, to be spoken to. But this was
an event which rarely occurred. Poor
Hannah's shyness was generally catching
to her companions. There are, however,
some individuals whose constitutions are
proof against certain diseases, even when
exposed to infection in the most unguarded
manner. Hannah's present fellow-traveller
had an idiosyncrasy of this nature. A
female Marlow would not have daunted
him, any more than the male one did Miss
Hardcastle. Moreover, he had discovered,
what the Goslingford beaux had never yet
found out, that this country girl had very
pretty brown eyes and hair, and it struck
him that it would pass the time quite as

58 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

quickly to amuse himself with her naivete
and shyness, as to go on reading the book
with the bright yellow cover, which had
hitherto been the not unpleasant com-
panion of his journey. He fancied, too,
that the sight of so magnificent a hero
as himself might have had something to do
with his companion's shyness. He began: —

"Rather a prettyish line this! — very
English I "

" Very pretty, and, I daresay, very
English ; but, as I have never been out
of England, I have had no opportunity
of judging of it by comparison."

" Never out of England ! I fancied you
must have travelled."

Now, Hannah's sensitiveness and quick-
ness of perception made her instanta-
neously aware that her companion was
indulging in banter, and, feeling a little

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 59

angry and very awkward, she said
abruptly —

" I have never been anywhere but at
Buttonborough, in my life."

" Never been anywhere but at Button-
borough in your life ! " and he looked in-
finitely amused, but too well-bred abso-
lutely to laugh. " Why, you are the
wonder of the age. I might have travelled
all over Europe without meeting the one
personage who has never been anywhere
but at Buttonborough. You are indeed a
vara avis." ^

'^ Not an avis at all, I assure you," said
Hannah, blushing, and feeling a little in-
dignation, at the same time not blind to
the humorous light in which this, to her
mortifying fact, might appear to the
traveller; "if I had, I should have flown
away long ago."

60 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

" Ah ! I see you are a chained eagle, or
caged swallow. So this is your first
railway journey. I hope it is to be as
long as you would wish it to be."

" It is not my first railway journey. I
have often been to Buttonborough."

"I beg your pardon. I thought But-
tonborough was your home, and that
this very day marked the remarkable era
of your first flight from it — the Hegira
of Miss Blank from Buttonborough. Dies
cretd notanda. You have learned Latin,
I perceive."

" No, never ; but I understand these
common things, and often a short Latin
sentence, without having learnt it."

" Indeed. You mean, in short, but
are too modest to say so, that you are
quite a female Mezzofante."

Hannah blushed and laughed, and yet,

THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 61

in spite of his banter, she had never felt
so much at her ease with a person of his
sex before.

" No, no, I don't mean anything of the
sort. You are really too bad."

Now, Hannah's companion had fancied
that a girl who had never been " anywhere
but at Buttonborough," was not likely to
have heard of the celebrated Cardinal-
linguist ; but she evidently had. Indeed,
she did not seem ignorant, and her manners
were lady-like, and our young railway
traveller began to feel some little curiosity
to know where she did live.

"Buttonborough, then, is not your
home. You live in the country, I suppose?"

" No, I live in Goslingford."

*' In Goslingford I " he repeated, in a
tone of real- surprise, and looking for a
minute full in Hannah's face, but without

62 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

any impertinence in the gaze. As he did
so, a faint reminiscence, like the memory of
a dream, came across her mind, that she
had seen that good-looking, good-natured,
self-complacent face before. Surely those
saucy blue eyes were not altogether un-
known to her. But Hannah Brown had
never been out of Goslingford, except to
go to Buttonborough, and in neither of
these places had she ever met in society
the person she now saw. Goslingford would
not have tolerated the Frenchified cut of
his coat, or the glossy curl of his brown
moustache, for Goslingford, only a few
years ago, held all hirsute facial decora-
tions, except whiskers, in abomination ;
and there is, to my mind, no more con-
clusive proof of the amazing velocity of
" progress," in these latter days, than that
beards, moustachios, and imperials now

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 63

abound in that thoroughly English town.
There are, however, a few individuals,
with Miss Wellby at their head, who per-
sist in considering all that, in their opinion,
superfluous hair, a proof, not of the advance-
ment, but of the degeneracy of the times.
And when Miss Richards, who naturally
takes the unbecoming side of the ques-
tion, happens to suggest that they are
healthy, and keep off consumption, her
friend and adversary will reply triumph-
antly—

'* Healthy I Dirty, you mean, Harriet. I
am an old-fashioned person, and believe
that cleanliness is akin to godliness ; but
you don't, I see, so we'll say no more
about it."

As I have said, then, the moustache was
proof positive that Hannah could not have
seen her fellow-traveller either at Gosling-

64 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

ford, or at Mrs. Beddoes', or anywhere,
except in the streets of Buttonborough, and
she was yet pondering the possibility of
having passed him there, when all at once
there was a terrific shock that threw her
forward from her seat with astounding
violence, a tremendous bumping, an awful
rattling, a swaying over of the train, loud
cries and shrieks, and the fearful flash of
conviction that they were in all the
horrors of a railway accident.

Those dread moments were but brief.
The train, from some cause or other, had
gone off the rails. Providentially, it was
neither in a cutting nor on an embankment,
but on a plain, with hedges and corn-fields
on both sides ; still it was an awful scene,
and to this day Hannah Brown recalls, with
a shudder and a faintness of the heart, the
horror, the sickening anxiety of the

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 65

moment, when she knew not what sight
might meet her eyes, nor what sad tale her
ear.

In the midst of this spectacle of unpa-
ralleled confusion, the air yet resounding
with cries, and groans, and shouts, Hannah
found herself standing up to the waist in
green corn beside her late fellow-traveller,
the bright June sun. pouring down on
their pale, scared faces and torn dresses,
and on the whole scene of wreck and
disorder.

" You are not much hurt, I hope ? " he
asked, in a tone of interest.

"No. 1 think not — not at all; but
your face is streaming with blood."

" Is it ? A mere scratch from the broken
glass ;" and he stanched it with his pocket-
handkerchief.

"I wonder if there are many killed?"

VOL, I. F

QQ THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

said Hannah, in a low tone, and with
blanched lips.

"Shall I go and see? You are not
afraid to be left alone for a few minutes ? "

" Oh no. I should like to know the
worst, or if I can do anything."

He was a long time in returning — at
least it seemed a long time to Hannah.
She looked eagerly down the long train of
carriages, and saw many taken out ; but
she was not near enough to see in what
condition they were, and she did not like
to go herself, lest she should be in the way.
She became very lonely and uncomfortable,
and longed for the return of her com-
panion. At last he came.

" Good news ! " he said, " no one killed,
or even in danger. A few broken limbs,
and a great many bruises, that is all."

" Thank heaven," cried Hannah, fer-
vently. And now that her mind was

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 67

relieved upon this point, and that it had
overcome the first bewildering shock of the
accident, it returned more nearly to its
accustomed channels of thought.

'^ My father!" she cried, "if he should
hear of this accident before I return. Oh,
what will become of him ? How can I 2:0
home ? "

" A man has walked on to Dustwhirl
Road, and the engine has gone back to
Buttonborough for help, and to stop the
next train. Probablv the Goslingford
omnibus will come on here, and after it has
helped to convey the wounded, it will
probably take us home."

" Oh, that will be so long," cried Hannah,
too much pre-occupied to remark that her
companion had spoken of Goslingford as
his home too. " I wonder if I could walk
to Dustwhirl Road ? "

f2

QS THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

" I cannot see what good end it would
answer if you could, and I am sure you
cannot in this hot sun, and with your
bruises, for you must be bruised, though
excitement has hitherto prevented your
feeling it."

Poor Hannah looked so anxious and so
distressed that her companion good-na-
turedly began to think how he could help
her

" Stay," he said, " there is a farmhouse
about half a mile from here, and the
farmer keeps some sort of vehicle. Per-
haps he will lend it to us — shall I go and
ask him ? "

'' Oh, thank you, thank you ! How
kind you are! You see I am the only
one left."

"Then come here, and wait till I come
back."

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 69

And he led her to a quiet corner,
near the public road, and got her his
carpet-bag, which had been in the car-
riao:e with them, to sit on. Hannah
found that she could not walk without
pain. She felt bruised all over, and her
arm especially began to ache violently.
She did not complain, however, but sat
down on the carpet-bag, to await the
young man's return. And as she sat
alone and began to think, it struck her
for the first time how strange it was that
he should be going to Goslingford too.
Then she looked at the carpet-bag, to see
if there was a name on it, but there was
none — neither name nor address, and
Hannah mentally resolved that she would
carefully conceal this fact from her father,
in whose good opinion it would have
ruined the young gentleman for ever.

70 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS.

During the three-quarters of an hour
which elapsed before his return, Hannah
had time to wonder at her own coolness
in putting him to so much trouble, and
to have worked herself up in consequence
into a miserable fit of shyness.

At last, when she had almost begun to
despair of ever seeing him again, he ap-
peared with the very shabbiest and
dirtiest of dog-carts — drawn by a horse
fresh from farm labour — and laughing
heartily.

" I can do no better for you, I am
sorry to say."

" Oh, thank you — I am ashamed "

" Of the carriage ? "

"Oh I no, of "

" My torn coat then ? "

** No, of giving ycu all this trouble."

" Oh, if that is all you have to be

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 71

ashamed of, you are a fortunate person.
I was just thinking how lucky you have
been altogether. Though you have only
been to Buttonborough, you have actually
been in a railway accident, and that is
what few can say. Why, all the rest of
your life you will be quite an authority
on the subject of railway accidents."
^ " Oh, please, don't," said Hannah — " it
was so horrible."

" It was," he said gravely, " but it is
not good for you to think of it in that
way now."

He then began to help her up the
awkward step into the high seat.

She gave her left hand.

" My right arm is a little hurt, I
think. It seems swollen." And as she
spoke she thrcAv back her open sleeve.

It was indeed very much swollen, and

72 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS.

she could not bear it moved. Her com-
panion thought it was broken, and, making
a sling of his handkerchief, he placed her
arm in it very gently, almost tenderly.
Hannah felt that he was very kind, and in
spite of her late agitation and the pain she
was suffering, would have felt rather happier
than usual, had it not been for the thought
of her father. But the sweets of life
come not unmixed, as the reader has
often said, and often heard, and often
experienced — the latter always a little to
his surprise and chagrin. In short,
human life, generally speaking, is either
sweet and bitter at once — a kind of moral
marmalade, or flavourless, like calves'-foot
jelly before the wine and the seasoning
have been added.

As soon as they were seated in the
farmer's dog-cart, Hannah's companion said
politely —

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 73

^' You must tell me what part of Gosling-
ford I am to drive you to. I have not the
pleasure of knowing your name."

" I live near the Church, and my name
is Hannah Brown."

She would have liked to ask his name too,
but this would have been too courageous
an effort for Hannah Brown, and he did
not tell it, as she expected. He made no
rejoinder, but received the information in
silence. During the rest of the way, he
was very agreeable and kind; but jested no
more during the rest of the time — a full
hour-and-a-half — that they were together.

74 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

CHAPTER IV.

AT HOME IN THE OLD RED HOUSE.

Mr. Brown's tea-hour was six o'clock, and
Hannah was expected home by half-past
five, which would be just in time; but
half-past five came, and no Hannah. Her
father concluded the train was late, or the
omnibus slow ; nevertheless he laid down
the book he was reading (the political
article in Blackwood), and began to walk in

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 75

the garden. Somehow or other he could
not attend to the meaning of what he was
reading. It was much easier and more
amusing just then to look what promise
there was of marrow-fats, and how the
nectarines and peaches on the south -wall
were coming on. Then Mr. Brown sat
down in the moss-house at the end of the
middle walk (a long alley formed by es-
paliers, and bordered by double daisies, at
the upper end of which was a sun-dial),
and admired the garden in general. And
it had a kind of beauty, though Hannah
did not like it — at least not at that period
of her life ; — it was so associated in her
mind with long, tedious days, a sinking
heart, and a longing, mortified spirit. It
had been the garden of Mr. Brown's father
and grandfather, and had doubtless been
new-fashioned in its time, but that was very

76 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

long ago, and now nothing could look more
formal and antiquated than its long, straight
walks, all at right angles, its lines of espa-
liers, and its obsolete flowers, to which
there was no part of the garden especially
assigned, but which mostly formed a
narrow border between the espaliers and
the gravel walks. Still there was a charm
on a sunny summer afternoon in sitting
in that old moss-house, inhaling the
mingled breath of honeysuckles and cab-
bage roses, and pinks, and sweet-williams
— listening to the hum of insects, and
watching the bees flit from flower to
flower. Even the Canterbury bells and
the London pride had their own homely
beauty. A ramble in Mr. Brown's garden
was like meeting the long-lost and long-
forgotten friends of one's childhood, and
awakened a host of sleeping memories.

THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 77

" What landscapes I read in the primroses' looks,
And what pictures of pebbled and murmuring brooks,
In the vetches that tangled their shore."

Something like the feelings which
prompted these lines perhaps it was, that
made the old Goslingford attorney love
so dearly the garden of his childhood,
for even in an attorney's heart there may
linger a drop of poetry, though you, fair
young lady, in love with the pale, dark-
eyed curate, I see, don't believe it. But,
even apart from association, there was real
beauty in that old garden, in its old-world
quietness and seclusion, in the wealth of
rosy fruit basking on the brick walls,
in the coolness of the " ivy green" which
mantled the back of the tall red house,
and in the long shadow of the taper-
ing church-spire, which cut the sunshine
as clearly as did the index on the
sun-dial.

78 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

Mr. William Brown had never heard of
Keats, and would most likely have despised
both him and his poetry if he had. But
that old ancestral garden of his — for Browns,
even when attorneys, really have ancestors
as well as Capulets — was the very place
to experience such thoughts, as no other
writer, prosaic or poetical, has so well
expressed —

" And calmest thoughts come round us — as of leaves
Budding — fruit ripening in stillness — autumn dews
Smiling at eve upon the quiet sheaves —
Sweet Sappho's cheek — a sleeping infant's breath —
The gradual sand that through an hour glass runs —

' A woodland rivulet — a Poet's death."

Now, Mr. Brown would doubtless have
told you that he had never thought any
one of these things in the whole course of
his life. Ripening apples were to him sug-
gestive of cider, and Sappho, if he had
ever heard of her at all, was associated

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 79

in his mind with crabbed Greek characters,
and the birch of Dr. Fell.

But thoughts of a certain class are so
much akin to feelings, that one can
scarcely draw the boundary line. The
difference is that the feelings are common,
but are only translated, or shaped into
thoughts, by the few. Thus, I have no
doubt, William Brown, in a vague, uncon-
scious way, experienced feelings akin to
those described by the poet, as he sat in
the afternoon sunshine, in the old garden
where he had played as a child, amid the
old familiar scenes where the sand of his
hour-glass had run so noiselessly.

But suddenly he was startled from a
half-sleeping, half-waking reverie by the
old church clock striking the hour of six
Hannah had not come. She must have
missed the train. It was intolerable in

80 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

Hannah. It was not to be borne. And
leaving the garden, he began to walk up
and down the paved path leading to the
street. It was in vain that the servants
offered tea.

''I will have no tea till Miss Brown
comes home."

*' The next train, sir, is not till eight
o'clock."

" Then I will have no tea at all. I
cannot stand people being late. It is —
it is quite unpardonable. She might have
stayed as late as she liked, if she had only
said so before she went away."

And Lucy went away, telling her fellow-
servants she had never seen anyone so
put out at having to wait for his tea.
Lucy had a fellow-feeling for people who
were late.

" I wonder," said she, "if he will walk
there till eight o'clock."

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 81

As the time passed on, Mr. Brown
walked faster and faster, till he was ready
to drop down with fatigue, and the more
tired he was, he became the more angry
and anxious. The only thing that gave
him any consolation was the thought of
how vexed Hannah would be when she
found that he was so tired and had had
no tea.

They made another attempt, by bring-
ing him out a cup of tea. But he
ordered it away again angrily, though in
reality he would have liked to have had
it.

Lucy, angry in her turn, suggested —

" But it may not have been Miss
Brown's fault — there may have been an
accident."

'' An accident, you fool I Don't talk
such nonsense to me."

VOL. T. G

82 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

Now the truth of the matter was, it
was the dread of an accident which had
so much disturbed Mr. Brown, though he
would not have acknowledged it even to
himself, and he was one of those whom
anxiety always makes cross.

" 111 news travels fast." As the messen-
ger from the train reached Dustwhirl
Road there chanced to be a butcher's boy
riding by the station on his way to Gos-
lingford. After having heard the news
he rode off at a double pace, and in
about an hour afterwards it was all over
Goslingford that there had been a dread-
ful accident to the mail train between
Buttonborough and Dustwhirl Road, fif-
teen people killed, and a great many
injured.

Miss Wellby had just sat down to a
cup of tea with Miss Richards, when

THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 83

the parlour-maid came in, open-mouthed,
and carrying another buttered tea-cake as
an excuse, with the news. It gives peo-
ple such pleasure, apparently, to tell bad
news ; and yet Miss Richards' Mary was
a kind-hearted girl, and was quite dis-
tressed by the accident. But, you see, it
gives us a sort of momentary importance
to be able to tell anything.

Miss Wellby started from her seat,
upsetting her tea.

" Hannah Brown ! Hannah Brown went
to Buttonborough this morning, and was
to come home by this very train. Har-
riet, I must go to Mr. Brown's this
instant. Oh, those trains I How different
it was in the good old days of the But-
tonborough mail !"

" Trains are, no doubt, very unsafe,"
said Miss Richards, who had never been

g2

84 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

in one in her life, and always travelled
in her own carriage ; " but, dear Clara,
though it is no doubt tempting Provi-
dence when we have other means of con-
veyance, yet those who go in igno-
rance "

" Good-bye, Harriet. My gloves, Mary."

" Poor Hannah," said Miss Richards,
anxiously ; '^ I hope she had built "

Then, as her friend was disappearing
from the room —

" Mary will run along to your house
in half an hour. Poor old Mr. Brown ! "

Miss Wellby found her old friend
pacing up and down where we left him.
That he had not yet heard of the acci-
dent was evident. He was rather pleased
to see Miss Wellby — she was always so
cheerful, and her opinions were so cor-
rect.

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 85

" There is that girl Hannah," he said,
"young people treated their parents dif-
ferently in our day, Miss Wellby — you
and I did not keep our fathers waiting
their meals — not come home by the train
as she promised! Most abominable care-
lessness— quite disgraceful ! "

" Come in, my dear sir, and let us
have a cup of tea," said Miss Clara, with
as much cheerfulness as she could assume,
" we will scold her well when she does
come."

But as Clara spoke, the youngest of
Mr. Brown's articled clerks, whose busi-
ness it was to fetch the letters, came up
in breathless haste.

" Letters not come, sir — accident to
the mail-train between Buttonborough
and Dustwhirl — sixteen killed they say."

He stopped short, and neither the clerk

86 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

nor Miss Wellby ever forgot poor old
Brown's low cry of anguish, or his pale,
stricken countenance.

''Uy child! — my Hannah!" Then,
turning fiercely to the lad, " Go, boy, this
instant to the Queen's Head, and order
a fly and pair — their best horses — any
money for them — quick ! I must go and
look for my child. She was my last "
and his lip quivered.

"My dear Mr. Brown," and poor Clara,
as she spoke, was agitated and weeping,
" there are hundreds, you know, in a
train, and Hannah was first-class, and
that is so much safer."

" Don't talk to me, Clara. You are not
a father. What can you know ? " Then
in a softer tone — " Clara, do you think
there is any chance of her having missed
the train ? " And the poor old man would

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 87

have given all his fortune that his
daughter should have done the very thing
which, only a minute before, he had been
so angry at the idea of her doing.

They were now at the end of the alley
which led from Mr. Brown's house to one
of the four main streets of Goslingford.
Here he began to fume for the fly, long
before the horses could possibly have been
harnessed, while Clara comforted, expos-
tulated, sympathised, and kept saying, for
Miss Wellby could never be silent, that —

" These things could not have happened
in the days of the Buttonborough
Mail."

Just as Mr. Brown's impatience was
getting beyond all bounds, the jingle of a
conveyance was heard in the distance.

" The fly at last ! " cried Miss Wellby.

" Fly 1 — nonsense ! There it comes,

88 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

— a farmer's trap I Oh, Hannah I " and
he turned away in a frenzy of anxiety and
impatience."

But hark I The trap pulled up — Clara
gave a scream of delight — Mr. Brown
turned, and there was a gentleman lifting
Hannah down from the vehicle.

In another moment she was in her father's
arms, and they were mingling together their
sobs and tears. For the first time Hannah
guessed how much her father loved her.

" You must thank this gentleman,
father. He got the trap for me, and did
everything, or I should not have been
home for hours."

"I do thank him; and may I ask to
whom I am so much indebted ? "

Hannah's companion had, in the mean-
time, been talking to Miss Wellby.

*^ He has been in such a state," the lady

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 89

said; '*but won't your father and mother
be anxious ? "

"No, they do not expect me till the
next train. Had not I better send Mr.
Splint, as I go home ? I fear Miss
Brown s arm is broken ! "

The young man now turned, as Mr.
Brown addressed him, and Hannah re-
marked, for an instant, a peculiar, rather
puzzled expression in his face ; but it
quickly passed. With much self-posses-
sion and politeness he took his card- case
from his pocket, and presented his card to
Mr. Brown. On the card was engraved
the name : —

''Mr. Edgar Smith:'

Mr. Brown was self-possessed too, but
all his old reserve returned. He thanked
Mr. Edgar Smith again — more pointedly
than before. Then they bowed, and the

90 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

young man went away, with a low, but
doubtful reverence to Hannah.

As they returned to the house, Miss
Wellby remarked —

"I never saw anybody so changed as
Edgar Smith, but ^we years is a long time
at his age. How ridiculous his moustache
looks ! I have no patience with such
foreign airs, though he seems a nice
enough young man, too. But all the
Smiths are so — so "

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 91

CHAPTER Y.

EDGAR smith's OPINIONS.

It was the morning after the accident.
The Smith family were at breakfast, or,
at least, such of them as had come down
stairs, for the Smiths in general, and the
Miss Smiths in particular were not famous
either for punctuality or early rising.
They had, however, exerted themselves a
little more than usual this morning, as
they were all eager to renew their over-

92 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

night's conversation with their brother,
and to hear more about the accident.

The Smith dining-room was probably
as handsome as that of any Montague in
Verona, though, to confess the truth, it had
nothing in the least ancestral about it,
except a rather vulgar portrait of grand-
father Smith, representing a stout, florid,
middle-aged gentleman, with a powdered
wig and pigtail, dressed in a white waist-
coat and blue coat with brass buttons.
In short, the whole aspect of Tudor Lodge
was undeniably modern, or, to speak
plainly, bran-new — an aspect which, to
some minds, is as objectionable in a resi-,
dence as in a coat. Of a bran-new pattern
was the silver teapot, the porcelain cups,
the tapestry carpet, the rep curtains ;
bran-new the deep oriel window, the
smooth-shaven, shadeless lawn, the bright

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 93

flower-beds, and the rustic seats. Mr.
Edgar Smith was seated next his mother.
She looked proud and pleased, and was
quite ready to fly at any prejudiced Gos-
lingford ignoramus who should object to
the moustache. This lady was of rather
a pugnacious disposition, when the entire
perfection of any member of her family
was, or seemed to be, questioned.

" And so you drove Hannah Brown " —
with a slightly contemptuous accent on the
name — "home. How very good-natured
in you, considering the way in which they
have always treated your father, and in-
deed all our family ! "

" Well, but, my dear mother," said
Edgar, with an air of amusement at his
mother's partisanship, *' but you know we
should return good for evil, at least, you
always taught me so when I was a little
boy."

94 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

"My dear child!" with tender admira-
tion ; then, more briskly : " It is sad to
think how different these Browns are —
all ^ the Church, the Church ' — but, I fear
very little Christianity."

** But I am sure Miss Brown never did
any of us any harm, nor would do it, if it
was in her power."

" No," said Miss Venetia Smith, a tall,
handsome girl, with blue eyes, and very
fashionably-made dress, who could never,
under any circumstances, have passed un-
noticed ; " I should not think she had the
wit to do us any harm, even if she wished
it, poor, stupid, little thing I"

" Stupid, Venetia ? " cried her brother.
"I differ from you entirely. I consider
Hannah Brown very clever, and very lady-
like, not to say pretty."

Having pronounced this opinion in his

THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 95

usual ex cathedra tone, Edgar leant back in
his chair, amused and pleased at the con-
sternation and surprise painted on the
faces of his mother and sisters. It was
the little revenge in which he indulged
himself for their contempt of Hannah
Brown.

Now, it was an established axiom with
all the ladies of the Smith family that in
matters of taste their brother's opinion
could not err. But his present dictum
sounded so heterodox to all preconceived
Smithian notions, that faint murmurs, even
of dissent, were heard. Poor Mrs. Smith
was between the horns of a dilemma, being
called upon either to doubt the infallibility
of her son, or to believe that a Brown
might possess merits.

Miss Laura Victoria Smith, was the
first to begin to come round. She was

96 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

the youngest sister, and her brother's
favourite, being a rosy, sweet-tempered,
plump-faced girl, her chief claims to
beauty consisting in a good complexion
and good teeth.

"Miss Wellby always said she was
clever, and certainly her hair is very
beautiful. But, somehow, it is not the
fashion in Goslingford to admire her."

"Then I will make it the fashion," said
Edgar, loftily.

Mrs. Smith felt that it was perhaps
better not any longer to continue a direct
attack on Hannah Brown. She contented
herself with saying —

" What a disgraceful thing in old
Brown, with such a fortune as his, and
only one daughter, not to have given her
greater educational advantages I He can
have no affection for her."

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 97

"If you had seen him last night, you
would not have said so. Poor old fellow !
He was stiff enough to me, but, from all
I saw, I should think the reason he did
not send Hannah to school, was because
he could not part with her."

" How very selfish, and what monstrous
ingratitude to be stiff to you after what
you had done ! It will teach you to do
anything for the Browns another time."

" I thought, mother, we were to love
our enemies^ and "

" We must take care how we love
them too well though, Edgar, my boy,"
said his father, who had hitherto seemed
entirely absorbed in discussing some ham
and boiled eggs.

Edgar coloured slightly, but imme-
diately recovering his self-possession,
laughed, and said —

VOL. I. H

98 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

" Not much danger of that, I think,

sir."

But though Mr. Smith had not spoken
before, he had been listening to all that
had passed. Now, Mr. Smith was a clever
man — a man whose mind at once em-
braced the bearings of most things — a
quality which had made him a good law-
yer. He was also really an affectionate
father, and like most men who have made
money, he was by no means indifferent
to the glittering dross — the world said he
was fond of it. He had never wished to
quarrel with old Brown. It was old
Brown who had insisted on quarrelling
with him — most unreasonably. Was there
any lawyer who would not take all the
respectable business he could get? — and
if some of old Brown's clients had come
over to him, was he going to refuse them?

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 99

Or, rather, with his family, was it not his
duty to get as much business as he could ?
It was all well enough for a man to in-
dulge in professional Quixotism when he
had only one daughter, though even then
Mr. Smith was not sure that it was right.
A man who did so would never be the
best man of business. Still he never had
felt more than temporary irritation at
old Brown. His conscience was quite
clear upon that point. But a complete
reconciliation would be more Christian,
and a better example in the eye of the
world ; and if Edgar should take a fancy
to Hannah Brown, why, it would not
much signify then who had the busi-
ness.

With Edgar's last words the breakfast-
party broke up. Mr. Smith never jested
again . on the subject, and it had never

h2

100 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

occurred to the ladies, in spite of what
Edgar had said, that there could be any-
thing to jest about.

Julietta remarked to Venetia that Edgar
certainly did take a pride in thinking
differently from everybody else ; and as
for Mrs. Smith, it never entered into her
head that her son would think of a flir-
tation with Hannah Brown, even though
he had the unaccountable taste to admire
her. Was she not a Brown?

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 101

CHAPTER VI.

FURTHER HETERODOXY ON THE PART OF
MR. EDGAR SMITH.

Hannah Brown's arm was broken. It
was, however, a simple fracture, and Mr.
Splint said would soon be well if she
took care of it. She was ordered, how-
ever, to keep her room for a few days,
as her bruises were somewhat painful,
and quietness was good for her. During
these few days, as in all her past illnesses

102 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

since her mother's death, Miss Clara
Wellby was her constant visitor. She
made sundry little sick dishes for her,
which nobody but herself could make,
and which always turned out quite dif-
ferent when anybody else attempted
them.

" I always make this apple-tea for poor
Harriet Richards when she has these
injBluenza colds. Would you believe it,
Hannah, with all her money, and the
ridiculous wages she gives her cook, she
cannot get a decent batter-pudding-ir-
though, to be sure, very few people can
make one. It should have flour enough, and
not too much, and — How can you be
so silly, Hannah, as to move your arm ?
You would have been much more com-
fortable if you had lain in the position I
recommended ; and the idea of your

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 103

stretching out yourself for that glass!
Did not I come here to help you?"

Miss Wellby was often a little put out,
for placidity of disposition was not among
her virtues, and she sometimes wearied
her patients by doing too much for them,
and by thinking that she understood
their comforts much better than they did
themselves. She spent the greater part
of her life in endeavouring to make
others happy, and occasionally felt it
somewhat ungrateful that her efforts were
not always attended with success. People
were so obstinately fond of their own
way — even of being happy. Poor Clara
had met with a great deal of perversity
of this kind in her life, and it spoke well
for her natural philanthropy, or her
Christian charity, that it had no effect in
making her relax her benevolent labours.

104 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

There was nothing Miss Wellby hated
so much as conceit. She thought it a
positive duty to make people think as
little of themselves as possible — more es-
pecially Harriet Richards. The Smith
family, too, required to be taken down ;
but Hannah Brown was not conceited,
except in thinking that she knew how to
manage her father's house without the
constant suggestions of Miss Wellby's long
experience. Personally, however, Hannah
was not conceited, so that Miss Wellby,
in those ungarded moments we all have
when we say things that we ought not
to have said, would occasionally repeat or
originate something complimentary, and
the more especially if it afforded her the
luxury of contradiction, of which she was
rather fond.

"If you go on in this way, Hannah,

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 105

stretching out for your barley-water your-
self, and sitting with your arm in that
position, you will not be able to drink
tea at Miss Richards's next week, not to
say that you may disfigure yourself for life."

Now, Hannah, at that moment, felt
very low. She had been excited all the
day after the accident; but now the re-
action had come, and, though she was
touched by Miss Wellby's kindness, it had
somewhat worn her out. She answered,
wearily —

"I am sure I don't much care. Miss
Richards's parties are generally dull."

" Dull ! " cried Clara, who had given
utterance to the same sentiment dozens of
times herself " I am sure poor Harriet
does her best to make everybody happy ;
but young people now-a-days must have
excitement."

106 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

" Well, Aunt Clara, I daresay the dul-
ness is in myself."

"Don't talk nonsense, Hannah. There
is Edgar Smith says you are both clever
and pretty."

A moment ago, life had seemed to
Hannah Brown very dull and cheerless.
Now, all at once, the sun broke out, the
birds sang, the flowers blossomed. It was
very undignified in Hannah Brown, no
doubt, but then she was only an attor-
ney's daughter, and one could not expect
her to feel as if she had

that repose

Which stamps the caste of Vere de Vere."

For sympathy and allowance, I must,
therefore, appeal to those who partake of
mere common human nature — the more
especially as Hannah had not even the
apology of being in love. But, excusable

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 107

or not, she now felt that she could very
well endure, if not enjoy, Aunt Clara's
company. No sooner, however, had the
speech, which had been such a draught
of champagne to poor Hannah's spirits,
passed Miss Wellby's lips, than she re-
pented of it, and added —

" But they say Edgar Smith is always
eccentric in his opinions, and likes to say
things different from other people. The
Smiths, we all know, Hannah, have not
the best taste in the world."

But Hannah, with all her sensitiveness,
and all her mortifying experiences, could
not be put down just then. She had been
thought clever and pretty, and she argued
that what had been the opinion of one person,
might possibly be the opinion of more
than one. She was anxious now to be well
enough to go to Miss Richards's tea-party.

108 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

She would have liked to know if any of
the Smiths were to be there, but she did
not like to ask Miss Wellby in direct terms.
She had very rarely, except at large parties,
been asked to meet the Smiths anywhere
(her father never), but Miss Richards was
very intimate with them, for as Mr. Brown
had caustically remarked, " You might be
sure that Thomas Smith would be intimate
with anybody who was rich." So Hannah
merely asked if it was to be a large party
at Miss Richards's.

But Clara was not in the humour to
know anything about it ; and after having
wrapped Hannah's feet in a shawl, shaken
her pillows, strained her barley-water,
kissed her, and scolded her again for
sundry misdemeanours, she took leave.

But to cheer Hannah^s solitude, came
the remembrance of the fact that Edgar

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 109

Smith had said she was pretty and clever.

The Smiths were to be at the party, at
least they had b2en invited, rather to
the general dismay of the family, for there
was no concealing the fact that Miss Rich-
ards's parties were dreadfully dull.

" Of course," said Venetia, " we need
not all go, three will be quite enough —
Mamma, and Edgar, and one of us."

"Edgar is much obliged to you," said
her brother, " but begs to be excused, not
being very fond either of tea or twaddle."

" You must go, Edgar," said his father.
" I should not wonder if the party were
given on your account. Miss Richards is
an excellent woman, and one of our best
clients."

'' Are you going, sir ? I should think
Miss Richards would be disappointed if you
did not."

110 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

"I shall drop in about supper-time, to
bring your mother home. I have business
in the earlier part of the evening."

" Cannot I do it for you ? The young,
you know, should work, and I should be so
happy."

A scarcely perceptible smile relaxed the
countenance of Mr. Smith, senior.

"No, I must do it myself. It is abso-
lutely necessary."

"Then I am very much afraid," said
Edgar, " there is some danger of my being
taken ill on Thursday week, with headache
or toothache, or something of that kind."

" No, no," said his father, quite good-
humouredly, but with considerable deter-
mination. " I will hear of no such
nonsense, we must all do tiresome things
occasionally."

"And I am sure," said Mrs. Smith, " no

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 1] 1

one ought to feel it tiresome to drink tea
with Miss Richards — such an excellent
Christian woman — and though she is a
churchwoman, so entirely without sectarian
feelings."

" She is certainly sufficiently without
taste, to have been a dissenter."

" Taste, my love ! " said his mother, " I
like good taste, and I hope," looking round
the handsome drawing-room, " I am not
very deficient in that way; but what has
taste to do with religion ? "

" Very little with our religion, certainly,
mother. Even Mr. Spurgeon, though he
has plenty of humour, has no taste," said
Edgar, with an uncomfortable reminiscence
of the long hot hours he had spent in a
square brick building like a Brodignagian
work-box, listening to discourses which he
had tried in vain to think were as eloquent

112 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

as well-written, or as convinciDg as those of
the Rector, on the rare occasions on which
he had been permitted to hear that gentle-
man.

"Edgar! " said his father, with an abso-
lute frown, a rare thing on the face of
Mr. Thomas Smith, who was really a good-
tempered man. Edgar made no answer.
He had had his little bit of revenge for
being forced to accept Miss Richards's in-
vitation, and was contented with his tri-
umph. His sisters said nothing. They
dared not, for their very lives, have
supported their brother, but, privately,
they admired his hardihood. It is a trite
saying, that there is a crook in every
lot. Few people had a happier lot than
the Miss Smiths, and, wonderful to relate,
they thought so themselves. They were
young, they were handsome, they were

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 113

fashionable, they were clever, they were
accomplished, they were admired ; and to
the full, they believed in and enjoyed
their advantages. But even they had
their crook in the lot. And this was,
that they were chapel people. The Miss
Smiths felt deeply that they were the
only very genteel people in Goslingford
who went to chapel. Gentility was with
them a passion, and they could not but
feel that this chapel-going was derogatory
to it. Then their pastor, the Rev. Josiah
Winter, had married a butcher's daughter,
and they were painfully aware that their
minister and his wife were no associates for
them. They — Mr. and Mrs. Winter — were
occasionally asked to Tudor Lodge to dinner,
but never with a party. At least, Mrs. Winter
was never invited with a party. These enter-
tainments to the Winters were dismal occa-

VOL. I. I

114 THE BUOWNS AND THE SMITHS.

sions for all concerned. A kind of falsetto
tone of familiarity and friendliness, compared
with which the formality of the most formal
party was ease and unconstraint, pervaded
the evening. It could not but make Mrs.
Winter sour to know that Mrs. Greenfield,
the rector's wife, and Miss Wellby, the
late rector's daughter, were asked to all
the Smiths' best parties, while she only
came to family dinners ; but, of course, as
Mr. Smith was her husband's chief sup-
porter in Goslingford, and, substantially,
their best friend, they had both to
swallow down their indignation, as those
must generally do who depend for their
daily bread on the aura populains.

Edgar did not care for the matter in
the gentility point of view so much as
his sisters. Of course everything he did
was genteel. But Mr. Greenfield was a

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 115

good preacher, a good man, a gentleman,
a scholar, and dared to give utterance
to the truth as he saw it. Then Edgar
Smith admired and loved the Church —
that is, the material building — itself. It
had always been a weakness of this young
man that he was fond of differing from
other people. He piqued himself on see-
ing with his own eyes, and so he early
astonished his father and mother, and,
indeed, all Goslirgford in general, with
the opinion that Gothic was the only
architecture proper for a church, and that
there was nothing popish in a pointed
arch, except the letter P. The church
people of Goslingford, the reader must
know, though very staunch, understood
the architectural merits of their church
very little better than the dissenters —
having only a sort of dim notion that

i2

116 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

there was something dissenting in a square
church, and something orthodox in a
chancel. It had sometimes dawned on
Edirar Smith too — the doctrine he heard
in the church being so exactly the same
as that in the chapel — that it was hardly
worth while to make all this fuss and
separation, for the mere pleasure of in-
dulofinjx in a taste for hideousness — the
only real mark of distinction he could
see between the church people and the
orthodox dissenters. Indeed, there were
some churches, as well as church people,
so entirely devoid of that taste, which,
Mrs. Smith had remarked, was no part
of religion, that even the general beauty
and decorum of the religion by law
established need have been no objection.

Once when the Winters were dining at
Tudor Lodge, as Mr. Winter and Mr.

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 117

Smith were discussing over their port the
merits of the voluntary system, Edgar
inquired suddenly, "if it would not be
better to have everj^thing on the volun-
tary system — prisons, for instance, and
reformatories. Let those who wanted
them subscribe for them."

Mr. Winter laughed grimly.

"But, Mr. Edgar, the very people who
do want reformatories are those who
will not subscribe."

" Oh, I see. And it is exactly the
contrary then with religion. The very
people who are without it are the m.ost
anxious to build chapels and maintain
ministers.''

Mr. Winter coloured up to the very
roots of his long black hair, and Mr.
Smith glanced at his son with angry
reproof.

118 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

A slight mischievous smile played
round the young man's lips as he leant
back in his chair with an air of what
Mr. Winter privately stigmatised as " in-
tolerable conceit," but which Edgar him-
self meant for innocent unconsciousness.
He certainly thought himself a very
clever young man, and we will charitably
hope he was not altogether mistaken.

The morning after the discussion upon
Miss Richards' tea-party, Edgar gave great
pleasure and astonishment to the whole
family by announcing at breakfast that
he intended, if he could spare as much
time from the office, to call on Miss
Richards that very day.

" I shall see that you have time," said
his father, much pleased ; " Miss Richards
will be very glad to see you. Attention
from our sex is always valued by un-

THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 119

married women a little up in life, and
particularly from young men. Who
knows but she may put you down in her
will for a few thousands ?"

" I assure you, sir, that is not my
object in calling; and if I thought Miss
Richards or anybody else would think it
was "

"Now, Edgar, don't be a fool. Miss
Richards has no relations, and if she
should take a fancy to you she is wrong-
ing nobody."

*• Very well, sir — if she should take a
fancy to me I cannot help it ; but you
really must not expect me to toady to
Miss Richards, who, though a very re-
spectable, excellent woman, is not exactly
the companion I should find congenial."

Mr. Smith wisely said no more. As he
remarked to his wife afterwards, Edgar, if

120 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

left to himself, would be much more
likely to do what was proper than if they
gave him advice. " I never saw a young
man so fond of his own opinion, nor
so jealous of being interfered with. Op-
position always drives him at once into a
confirmed determination to take his own
way. And yet he is not a bad boy
either."

"A bad boy, my dear ! We are very
well off, and ought to be thankful to
Providence who has given us such a son.
In my opinion what you think self-will
is only a joke. He is a most affectionate
son. I am sure Miss Richards will not
see such another young man in Gos-
lingford."

" I am afraid she won't like his mous-
tache."

" Then she is a very foolish and pre-

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 121

judiced woman. I am sure it is excessively
becoming. And poor dear Miss Richards,
you know, is no authority in matters
of taste. Her notions about dress are quite
exploded now among religious people."

But to return to Edgar. It had struck
that astute youth that as he must go to
Miss Richards' party, it would be as well
not only to do it with a good grace, but to
leave no stone unturned to make the even-
ing as agreeable as possible. He therefore
set out to call on that good simple soul
with a diplomatic end in view. Edgar
Smith, though a conceited youth (and we
all know that truly great minds are
never conceited — vide Socrates, Sir Isaac
Newton, &c.), was not without the heroic
quality of being able to make the best of
things as they are, and could turn even
his misfortunes to account.

122 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS,

After having made himself very agree-
able to Miss Richards, and caused her
little twigs of grey hair to stand on end
with his account of the accident, the
opening he hoped for presented itself.
Miss Richards trusted she was to have
the pleasure of seeing him at tea.

" Certainly. He was looking forward
to it ; " — he did not say with pleasure,
my truth -loving reader. ^'Was it to be
a large party ? "

" Oh, no ! only Miss Wellby, and a few
other friends."

" Was Miss Brown to be one of the
party?"

" N-no. I think not," said Harriet. " I
thought of asking her, she is such a nice,
modest young person ; but, in fact, I was
not sure whether your father and mo-
ther"— and poor Harriet coloured painfully.

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 123

"Would like it, you mean. I am cer-
tain they would have no objection.
Family feuds are very foolish and un-
christian."

" I am delighted to hear you say so,
Mr. Edgar. I will ask Hannah at once ;
and I am sure, if I could contribute, in
any way, to so excellent an object^ as to
eifect a reconciliation between the families,
I should be happy. I always felt sure so
good a man as your father could not be
to blame. But what could one expect
from poor Mr. Brown, after his calling
that sweet book, ' Shrieks from the
Depths,' rubbish. You have read it, Mr.
Edgar? Shall I lend it to you?"

Edgar had not read it, and he received
from good Miss Harriet, somewhat unwill-
ingly, a little blue volume, of which, on
opening it at random, a marked feature

124 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

seemed to be inrmmerable notes of ex-
clamation, and a profusion of capital
letters. It did strike Edgar Smith that
it was rather a pity that religions writers
should imitate the style of a newspaper
advertisement, as if they meant to pnff off
the Kingdom of Heaven. He did not,
however, express this sentiment to Miss
Richards, but took leave, well satisfied
that he had gained the object of his
visit.

The next day Miss Richards told her
friend Clara, that she had had a visit
from young Edgar Smith, and how very
much she was pleased with him, and with
his evident wish for a reconciliation with
the Browns.

Clara listened, somewhat impatiently,
to the whole recital, and then broke
ont —

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 125

" Well, Harriet ! — you are the very
greenest goose ! What will not the Smiths
— and, indeed, your set of pious people in
general — do for money? "

" I do not understand you, Clara; and
you are very unjust."

" Well, Harriet, perhaps I am to you.
I do believe, with all your wealth, you
are not fond of money ; but," she added,
relapsing into her usual jesting, random
manner, "the exception, you know, proves
the rule. And now I must think over
this affair of the Browns and the Smiths.
Mr. Smith has too often behaved in an
un gentlemanly, sharp kind of way to Mr.
Brown, for my dear old friend to get
over it. Though he is a lawyer, Mr.
Brown has as keen a sense of honour as
if he had been — a — a knight of the Round
Table."

126 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS.

" I don't know anything about the
Round Table. I don't see much difference
between fiction and lies, and I think it
would be more for Mr. Brown's happiness
if he had the spirit of a Christian, and
could forgive his brother what he has
against him."

"Well, so he does, Harriet. If a thief
were to pick my pocket, I would forgive
him, but I would not shake hands with
him ; and say, ^ My dear sir, I am glad
of this opportunity of making your ac-
quaintance.' Would you ? "

And so Clara came off, as usual, with
flying colours.

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 127

CHAPTER VII.

MISS RICHAEDS' TEA-PARTY.

Hannah Brown's general health had
quite recovered its ordinary tone before
the day of Miss Richards' tea-party. Her
arm was still in a sling, but Mr. Splint
said it would soon be quite well. It was
a fine evening late in June, so that
Hannah and Miss Wellby, who were to go
together, decided on walking. Hannah
did look very nice, Miss Clara thought,

128 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

in her delicate silk dress, made with the
plainness and simplicity which always
characterised all she wore, and the fine
lace collar, fastened by the brooch which
contained her mother's hair. A little
more of decided fashion, Miss Wellby
might, perhaps, have preferred, still she
acknowledged Hannah was very ladylike,
and her hair beautiful. There was a
brighter colour rather than usual in her
cheek, and in her shy eyes a look of ex-
pectation, a rare thing with Hannah Brown,
who seldom expected anything. As they
reached Miss Richards' house, she became
even more nervous than she usually was
when she went to a party. She wished
Miss Clara had not told her what Edgar
Smith had said of her, and she felt cer-
tain that, if she should meet him again,
he would change his mind.

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 129

Miss Wellby and Hannah were the first
arrivals. They found Miss Richards in her
drawing-room — a room which was only used
on state occasions. It was not a large
apartment, but the furniture in it seemed
all to have been intended for a room forty
feet long. The ugly pile carpet, the cum-
brous walnut- wood chairs and tables, the
dark-coloured, lavishly gilt paper, the heavy
cornices and rich, gloomy curtains, were al-
most smothering in a room about eighteen
feet by fourteen. Miss Wellby immediately
began to pull the furniture about, declaring
that the formality of its arrangement wag
quite enough to prevent them all opening
their lips. She was yet engaged in this occu-
pation, when Miss Splint and Miss Westcote
arrived. Miss Westcote was the belle of
Goslingford — a fair-skinned girl, with a
good deal of colour, large, unmeaning blue

VOL. I. K

130 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

eyes, and a self-satisfied simper. She had
been finished at Miss Slater's, as her framed
chalk-drawing of a baby's head with a
swollen cheek, and a very large vase of
potichomanie, — not to mention a pyramid of
wax fruit under a glass case, — abundantly
testified. Miss Westcote's mother was a na-
tive of Goslingford, and the widow of a But-
tonborough manufacturer. At her hus-
band's death, Mrs. Westcote had returned
to her native place, with her little girl and
a few thousand pounds. Miss Westcote
was not thought by the Goslingford public
to have the style and fashion of the Miss
Smiths — an opinion which it generally de-
livered in a tone of commendation as far as
regarded Miss Westcote — but she was con-
sidered prettier ; and as there were so many
of the Smiths, she was likely to have more
money. It was the fashion, in short, to

THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 131

laud Mary Westcote up to the skies, and
often at the expense of the Miss Smiths (no
one ever thought of poor Hannah Brown
as a rival to anybody), yet, somehow or
other, the Miss Smiths always secured the
lion's share of attention. Mary Westcote
bore this better than could have been ex-
pected. In fact, both she and her mother
felt that Mr. Edgar Smith was coming home.
He could not devote himself to his own
sisters, and he was undoubtedly the great
matrimonial prize of Goslingford. Miss
Westcote had met Mr. Edgar Smith in the
street since his return, and had secretly
formed an opinion that his moustache was
very becoming. She took good care, how-
ever, not to say so to any one, as, in the
days of which I write, not even the distant
murmur of the advancino^ wave of the crreat
moustache and beard movement had broken

K 2

132 THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS.

as yet on the Goslingford ear, and nothing
was esteemed more heterodox than to admire
these natural ornaments. They were thought
"foreign," and the Goslingford public yet
rejoiced unfeignedly in the sturdy English
belief that "foreign " and " contemptible "
were quite convertible adjectives. But
Miss Westcote, who was an original thinker,
if not as far as moustaches in general, but
at least as far as this moustache in particular,
was concerned, sat awaiting the arrival of its
owner with much complacency. Was not
she the belle of Goslingford ? Had not her
handsome-w^orked muslin dress been made
at Buttonborough at Paris House ? And was
not Mr. Edgar Smith a person of unexcep-
tionable taste? It had never struck Miss
Westcote that taste could reach beyond
dress and appearance. Perhaps she did not
know there was anything beyond.

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 133

The Smiths were always late — much to
the grievance of Miss Richards ; and all
the rest of the party had arrived before
them. .Among these were Mr. Green-
field, the rector, and his eldest daughter.
Mr. Greenfield was a man much liked in
his parish. He was a man beyond middle
age, white-haired, blue-eyed, stout, hand-
some, florid — pious enough and strict enough
to please Miss Richards, cheerful and hard-
working enough to make Miss Wellby
pardon him for occasionally going on
missionary tours, and declining to play a
rubber at whist. Privately, the dissenters
did not quite like him, because he had
thinned the chapels; but they could not
find anything to say against him, as
neither by word nor deed had he ever in
any way set himself in direct opposition to
them. At first this had given umbrage to

134 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

Mr. Brown, Miss Wellby, and their party ;
and Miss Clara, who had always courage
equal to the occasion, attacked Mr Green-
field for his want of churchman ship.
He stoutly denied the charge.

^' We have two enemies to oppose," said
he, " sin and schism ; but as I believe
schism to be a mere offshoot of sin, I
think it best to attack the enemy at
head-quarters. Depend upon it. Miss
Wellby, when there is no sin, there will
be no schism."

And years after, when Miss Wellby
was congratulating him on the accession
of a whole family to the church-com-
munion, he said, *^ You see, Miss Wellby,
I have not been such a bad church-
man after all."

Miss Wellby did not like Miss Green-
field so well as her father, or her mother.

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 135

who was a gentle invalid, or her younger
brothers and sisters, who mostly inherited
the genial temper, if not the talents or
the devotedness, of their father. Miss
Greenfield was a strong-minded young wo-
man, about thirty, who worked, and taught,
and visited like two curates in one, and
was much more loved by the poor than
by the rich, who thought her dictatorial.
Miss Wellby, however, always treated
Miss Greenfield very politely. She did
not argue with or laugh at her, as at
Miss Richards, for whom in her heart
she had a tenderness greater than for
any other human being. She frequently
abused Miss Greenfield to Harriet, who
always maintained that she was the most
*^ devoted Christian " in the parish. After
a long argument, Clara would sometimes
conclude, —

136 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

" Well Harriet, — one thing I will allow
in praise of Eliza Greenfield. She has
not published a book yet about her own
doings. In the good old days we used
to be taught not to sound a trumpet
before us ; but now-a-days your alms-
givers, and your missionary ladies, have
all a printer coming up at their heels."

But I have kept the reader waiting
long enough for the appearance of the
Smiths — not longer, however, than they
kept Miss Richards and the rest of her
guests.

Mrs. Smith, Miss Laura Victoria, and
Mr. Edgar Smith were the represent-
atives of the family on the present
occasion. There were at least two female
hearts present not altogether unmoved
by the presence of the young gentleman
— which, if he could have known him-

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 137

self, he would not have been in the
least surprised at, as a very low opinion
of his own attractions was by no means
one of his merits. And yet I do not
myself think that Edgar Smith was of
so haughty a mind as many other people,
— as some, even, who are considered
humble. He could pardon affronts to
his vanity, and he felt no mortification
in acknowledging superiority when he
met with it.

You don't think so very much of
this, my dear reader, with the mind at
once humble and lofty. I am sorry for
it, because, with all his faults and
weaknesses, I wished you to give my
hero — yes, Smith, attorney of Gosling-
ford, is my hero — some credit for mag-
nanimity; and magnanimity, dear reader,
though it does exist, is not common,

138 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

perhaps the most uncommon of all the
virtues.

Edgar Smith was very fond of Mr. Green-
field. Most intelligent young men were,
for, though above sixty, Mr. Greenfield had
all the freshness and much of the enthusiasm
of youth still. His sympathies with the
young perhaps stronger even than with

those of his own standing. Now, as
soon, therefore, as Edgar saw that Mr.

Greenfield was of the party, and that he
was standing in a window a little apart,
and very accessible, he joined him, first
shaking hands with Miss Richards, and
bowing inclusively to the rest of the
party, — a movement which was no little
disappointment to Miss Westcote, who
confidently expected he would have come
to her. Hannah Brown was not disap-
pointed, for she had not exactly expected

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 139

anything. She only experienced a rather
deeper and fresher pang of the dull
old pain, — the mortified feeling that no-
body thought her worth paying any
attention to.

But tea was now on the table, and
Miss Harriet was seated behind the heavy
silver urn, with the china before her —
the only wonder of which was, that
Colebrook Dale had ever produced any-
thing so ugly. The strongest of tea,
the richest of cake, the thickest of cream
plentifully supplied the table ; and two
neat, quakerish-looking maid-servants stood
with silver trays, ready to convey
the sleep-destroying beverage and the
indigestible viands round to the ladies,
as soon as Mr. Greenfield should have
said grace. And then Mr. Edgar Smith
bestirred himself to be polite, and ere

140 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

anyone was aware of his intention, he
was standing beside Hannah Brown.

*' I am delighted to see you able to be
here, Miss Brown, and to^ have heard from
Mr. Greenfield that your arm is so much
better. Allow me to fetch you tea, and to
act as your left hand. I can hold your cup
and saucer while you use the other to
drink it."

" Oh, thank you, but "

" I can sit on that stool at vour feet,
and then the cup will be just at the height
convenient for you to reach."

Mr. Edgar Smith sitting, in the face of
Goslingford and Miss Harriet Richards, at
the feet of Hannah Brown, who never
flirted ! Oh, ye old maids of Goslingford !
Could ye have outlived such a spectacle ?
Hannah coloured all over her face and
throat with mingled terror and shyness.

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 141

" Oh, no, Mr. Smith, I could not — you
must not, indeed."

Edgar Smith laughed heartily. He knew
just as well as Hannah the sensation such a
proceeding would have produced, but he
would have liked nothing better. He did
not wish to annoy her however, and he
read her feelings at a glance.

"Well, if the prejudices of society, or
your own prejudices, are against me," he
added, a little more gravely, " let me set a
chair for you at the table."

" Do, Hannah, dear," cried Miss
Richards from behind the tea-urn, " come
and sit at the table. Here is a nice quiet
place just beside me."

And Edgar Smith, as Hannah rose to
obey the summons, followed her with a
chair, and placed it not — exactly in the
spot indicated by Miss Richards, but where

142 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

there was room for himself to stand near
her.

The surprise and just indignation of
Miss Westcote may be imagined. Surely
it must be some great mistake. She had
always heard that Edgar Smith prided
himself upon thinking differently from
other people ; but to go and devote himself
to Hannah Brown, whom nobody ever
thought of admiring, and considering the.
terms the families were on, it really was
a freak, and a most provoking freak,
considering the new dress from Button-
borough ! Mrs. Smith, in her heart,
sympathised with Miss Westcote, but if
any one had ventured to impugn her son's
taste, she would, of course, have taken his
part, even though it involved approbation
of Hannah Brown. As for Hannah
herself, the novel position of being singled

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 143

out for attention was not quite so agree-
able as she had fancied. It made her feel
awkward. She fancied everybody was
looking at her, to see how she bore it;
and then her arm was in a sling ! But
after tea was over, it was more comfort-
able. Edgar sat down a little behind her,
where he was not so conspicuous, and they
fell into a pleasant conversation, so that
Hannah forgot her own personality, and
became unconscious and at ease.

Hannah had read about most places, but
in her limited range of society she had
hardly met anyone before who had lived
abroad, and Edgar's lively sketches of
Bonn, where he had been at college, — his
rather humorous and somewhat exagge-
rated descriptions of Rhine tourists, — and
his little pictures of Alpine scenery, made
Hannah long and laugh by turns. Edgar

144 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

was really doing his best to please, and
he was neither too nervous nor too con-
fident for success. Hannah's freshness and
naivete, united with her evident intelli-
gence, were just what interested, and,
perhaps, a little flattered him. He thought
what a pleasant thing it would be to show
her all these things, and to watch her
enjoyment of them. She had had such
a dull life ! How pleasant it would be
to brighten it !

At last Hannah began to awaken to a
consciousness that their conversation had
been very long, and to feel again a little
uncomfortable. Hesitating for a second or
two, she said : —

" I wonder what Miss Wellby is talking
about so energetically to Mr. Greenfield ?"

^' You mean you would like to go and
hear. I must not engross you all the evening,

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 145

Miss Brown, I know." Hannah coloured as
she passed, but Edgar Smith remarked,
within himself, that her 7idivete was not
without a mixture of dignity. He now
betook himself to the hitherto neglected
Miss Westcote, whose ruffled plumage began
to smooth as she saw him approach, and
the more especially as he addressed her
with a compliment, which she received with
a giggle.

" What a flirtation you have been having !
It has quite amused me.''

^' Has it ? I am very happy to have
amused you."

" I don't think I ever saw Hannah Brown
flirt before."

" Probably not. Are you sure she has
been flirting now ? "

Miss Westcote was not very bright. She
fancied Mr. Edgar Smith was gratifying her

VOL. I. L

146 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

by a little detraction of Hannah Brown.

" I thought so ; but I am sure I don't
know why, people don't generally admire
her."

" Don't they ? If you don't know why,
it is not to be wondered at that I don't
know why either. Do you think her
pretty ? "

"I ! Oh no ; nobody does, that I know
of."

" I will tell you of one person, then, who
does."

"Oh, pray do. Who?"

" I do."

Miss Westcote had recourse to the giggle
with which she was wont to fill up any
hiatus in conversation. Talking was not
her forte. She looked Mr. Edgar Smith
full in the face, with a sort of feeling that
he might be joking. But, perhaps because

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 147

she was no physiognomist, she could read
nothing there to enable her to decide the
point. She thought he looked amused ; but
that it was at Hannah Brown, she did not
feel so certain perhaps as she could have
wished. Edgar Smith remained beside her
till the supper-trays made their appearance,
but her flirtation with him was not alto-
gether so satisfactory and comfortable as
she had expected. Miss Westcote was not
much of a philosopher, or she might have
consoled herself with the reflection — like
most true things trite, and like most trite
things, invested on occasions with all
the force of originality — that mortal aff^airs
seldom do turn out as they are expected.
Nor, had Miss Westcote been capable of
making a general reflection, would it have
been trite to her. Nothing is trite to stu-
pidity ; and when, by the irresistible power

l2

148 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

of circumstance, an idea is forced upon
the stupid, it is attended with all the
surprise of novelty. You see, my clever
reader, all the advantages are not on your
side, so much for the law of compensation.

But perhaps on the present occasion,
Miss Westcote's feelings were too much
excited to permit of her making general
reflections.

When she returned home, and her mo-
ther, who had absented herself from the
party on account of a headache, asked her
what kind of evening she had had, she
answered,

*' Oh, so hot and tiresome ! T was so
sorry I had put on my new dress."

" Were the Smiths there ? "

" Yes. Edgar Smith is the most con-
ceited creature. Such ridiculous airs he
gives himself ! "

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 149

" Airs ! Young men who have been
brought up abroad often do. But I
should hardly have thought he would have
given himself airs to you. These Smiths
are so full of pretence — as if I did not
remember what a different position they
were in when I was a girl. I must say
the Browns are very different, though
they have a much better right. Hannah
is always so unassuming and quiet."

^' I am not so sure of that, mamma. She
is a sly thing, and such a dowdy as she
looked to-night, with her arm in a sling.
Only fancy, Edgar Smith says she is
pretty," and a slight bitter giggle betrayed
to Mrs. Westcote, who, though not abso-
lutely a genius, was yet a cleverer woman
than her daughter, what had been the
jarring element in the party.

"Nonsense, my dear! He could not

150 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

really think so. Nobody does. I have no
doubt he said it to tease you ; but you
must not let him see that it does."

" Oh, it does not tease me at all, I assure
y^ou."

" My darling ! Do you think Edgar
Smith has no eyes ? "

Mary Westcote at last condescended to
smile, and a glance in the mirror, at her
own great blue orbs, inclined her to take
her mother's view of the question. But
she had still sufficient misgiving to invest
the affair with the interest of uncer-
tainty.

But I have been anticipating the natural
course of the events of the evening. Mr.
Smith, senior, appeared about the same
time as the trays, and, after everybody
had partaken liberally of chicken and
tongue, rich creams and jellies, heavy

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 151

cakes and strong negus, the party broke
up.

Miss Brown's servant had come for her
and Miss Wellby, who lived near the
Browns; but Mr. Edgar Smith could not
hear of the two ladies walking such a
distance — Miss Westcote lived near Miss
Richards — without being protected by one
of the stronger sex. It was in vain
that Miss Wellby represented that Mr.
Greenfield's way lay along with theirs,
and that it would be a great distance
for him to walk back alone to Tudor
Lodge.

Mr. Edgar Smith " liked a solitary walk
on a summer night. I am romantic, Miss
Wellby," he said, a slight smile playing
round the corners of his mouth. Miss
Wellby laughed scornfully.

"Romantic! Take my word for it,

152 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

Mr. Edgar, common sense is better than
romance."

" I am not so sure of that, Miss Wellby.
Perhaps it may be better in the abstract,
but it is not better to me. It may be
my taste to prefer living on gooseberry-
fool to roast-beef"

" The more fool you, then," said Clara.

Edgar laughed. He was very good-
natured, and so Miss Clara thought. She
was pleased, moreover, with her own wit,
or what she considered wit. She had not
liked Edgar Smith walking home with
them, having quite sense enough to set
down this piece of gallantry to Hannah's
account. As long as she could remember
Goslingford, and that was all her life,
there had been rivalship, to call it by the
mildest name, between the Smiths and
the Browns. Now, Clara was of opinion

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 153

that the thing which had been was the
thing which should be, and that a Mr.
Smith should admire a Miss Brown ap-
peared to her unnatural and portentous,
and she had felt quite fidgety at having
been forced into a semblance of counte-
nancing anything so anomalous. But she
would speak to Hannah to-morrow.

It was a fine moonlight night, the sky
without a cloud, and the midsummer twi-
light in the north-west seemed to struggle
for ascendancy with the beams of the moon,
which rose, round as a wheel, and looked
over the chimney tops and the ancient
gables into the cruciform streets of Gosling-
ford. Hannah was a little too much ex-
cited to admire as much as usual the broad
shadows and the white lights, and the
quaint dark outlines of peak and chimney
beneath the silver blue sky ; or to note,

154 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

with her artist's eye, the solitary light from
some cottage window, or the picturesque
interior of some little huckster's shop.
Hannah was walking as quietly as she
usually did on a fine moonlight or star-
light night, but she did not much observe
outward things. She was feeling, rather
than thinking, though she scarcely knew
what her feelings were. The predominant
one, perhaps, was, that she was actually
leaning on the arm of Edgar Smith, the
hereditary foe of her father's house.
Certain recollections of Romeo and Juliet,
Lucy Ashton and the Master of Ravens-
wood, &c., floated before her agitated
brain ; for, though but a modern attorney's
daughter, she actually recognised in the
history of these romantic heroines some-
thing that seemed akin to her own humble,
destiny. But, then, quiet Hannah Brown,

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 155

in the recesses of her own heart, was a
very romantic girl.

They had walked about half-way to the
Old Red House, when Mr. Edgar Smith,
who had hitherto been chatting with Miss
Wellby, suddenly addressed Hannah —

"Of course, Miss Brown, you are fami-
liar with Shakspeare ? ''

'' Shakspeare ! " cried Miss Clara, whose
associations with Shakspeare were limited
to a vivid recollection of the outside of
eight middle-aged volumes, handsomely
bound in calf, and occupying an honour-
able, dusty place in her late father's
library. Shakspeare, to Miss Clara, was
a book that her father and other clever
and literary men read, and authors
quoted. At her father's sale she had
purchased in the well-known eight
volumes, as she felt that it was respectable

156 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

to have them on her own bookshelf at
the top of the chifFoniere in her drawing-
room ; but she would about as soon have
thought of Hannah Brown reading the
Koran. " You forget, Mr. Edgar, that
Hannah has not been at a college, and
learnt all the sciences, like the Miss
Smiths."

Now, Edgar did not quite see what
connection there was between Shakspeare
and the scientific education of his sisters,
so he could only laugh, while poor Hannah
remained very uncomfortable and nervous
on account of Clara's, as it seemed to her,
scarcely polite speech.

They had now come in sight of the
church, and Edgar admired the elegance
of the slender spire, as it rose up so clear
and tapering under the moonlight sky, and
the dark shadow beneath the old Norman

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 157

arch in the porch, and the fine old trees,
so shady and so solemn. And then
Hannah began to speak, and to join
warmly in the admiration ; for that
ancient church, and those venerable trees,
had early impressed the girl's imagination,
and she tasted with joy this first draught of
sympathy in feelings as old as her memory.
Clara, too, admired the church, but it was
because it was the church ; and, in the
presence of a dissenter, more especially,
she felt a sort of personal triumph in the
acknowledged superiority of its architec-
ture and antiquity.

The triumph was, perhaps, a little
spoiled by the fact that Edgar did not
seem altogether to regard it as a triumph,
but as a matter of fact universally
acknowledged.

*^ I often," said Hannah, at last joining

158 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

in the conversation, "wonder what kind
of people they were who built such places.
What great thoughts I — what sublime
perseverance they must have had ! I
often wish I could realise the spirit of
the men whose imagination bodied forth
such grand monuments of their genius."

*' It was the monkish spirit, my dear,"
said Clara, who, like most people, when
she said she liked old ways and old
thoughts, meant only the ways and the
thoughts of her own youth, and who
viewed the people of remote times, as of
remote countries, with a species of con-
tempt. " If you want to know about it,
I have a very nice abridged History of
England; but, though they did build fine
churches, they were such fools then, they
are not worth reading about."

^' But if they had all been fools, Aunt

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 159

Clara, how could they have built the
churches ? "

'^ They framed Magna Charta, too," said
Edgar.

" Well, well, they were thought fools
in my day, and it was not the fashion
then for young people to be wiser than
their parents. Somebody, I have no
doubt, will tell us some day that Bloody
Mary was a humane queen, and old King
Harry a just ruler and a moral man,
though he was fond of cutting off the
heads of his wives."

Miss Clara little thought when she
made this speech that it would prove
prophetic. But she triumphed in silenc-
ing her companions, who probably thought
it was as well not to employ arguments
where arguments were of no use. What
is the use of overthrowing an enemy who

160 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

is never conscious of defeat ? When
you imagined you had beaten Miss Clara
to the dust with a sledge-hammer on one
side, there she was on the other, aiming
her arrows at you as lively as ever, and
with all the pride of victory.

According to her intention, she called
on Hannah Brown the next morning.

" Hannah," she said, " I do not approve
of this foolish flirtation with Edgar
Smith. It can come to no good. And
if it were to go further "

If it were to go further ! Hannah's
heart beat at the ideas this " going fur-
ther" vaguely raised in her mind, and
then it suddenly sank. Nothing pleasant
was right for her. It was the old story
again.

"You must put a stop to it at

once."

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 161

"Oh, Aunt Clara! How can I? — he
has been so kind to me."

And she coloured painfully, while her
lip trembled, and a tear rose to her
eye.

Miss Wellby had a kind heart. She
felt herself slightly choking for a second,
but it was not her wont to exhibit such
emotions.

" My dear, I do not blame you, but I
am very angry with Edgar Smith, and if
it were not for your dignity I would
speak to him. Men have not much con-
sideration for us, Hannah, and they can
wring our hearts for a few hours' amuse-
ment— even men who are not thought
bad men. You have no mother, my poor
girl, and neither your father nor Mr.
Smith would approve of this. It is all
very well that good-natured simpleton,

VOL. I. M

162 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

Harriet, talking about Christian forgive-
ness, but it is contrary to common sense.
Oh, Hannah, why do you cry ? "

" I am sure I don't know."

" But I know, Hannah, if this is not
put a stop to, it will break your heart.
You have not the spirit of some other
people. And it went hard enough with
them, too. But that is an old story,
gone and done long ago."

" But what am I to do. Aunt Clara ? "

" Don't encourage him."

" I will not ; but I cannot be uncivil
to him. No one else has ever been so
kind to me."

" Some kindness is no kindness, Han-
nah. And now remember; you are
warned I "

And Miss Clara took leave — kissing
her young friend with more than usual

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 163

tenderress. She felt she must not stay,
lest she should show more sympathy than
she wished.

Poor Hannah felt miserably depressed;
but first hopes are not, after all, so
easily crushed. Hannah began to think
of what Miss Richards was reported to
have said about Christian forgiveness.
Were forgiveness and good sense so in-
compatible ? And if forgiveness did not
mean reconciliation and mutual oblivion
of offence, what did it mean ?

Hannah was not naturally a very bold
thinker, but she did begin to suspect that
common sense was either a misnomer or
a different thing from good sense.

m2

164 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

CHAPTER VIII.

THE STATE OF PUBLIC OPINION AT GOSLING-
FORD ABOUT SUNDRY SOCIAL MATTERS.

Advice, more especially unasked advice,
is proverbially of little use. There is there-
fore nothinoj new in Miss Clara's counsel
falling fruitless to the ground. Or, if it
had any effect, it was merely to give
Hannah occasionally, when it came across
her, an uneasy, uncomfortable sensation.
But, on the whole, life had never been so

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 165

pleasant to Hannah Brown as it was
at present. The first time she had
met Edgar Smith after her conversation
with Miss Wellby (the interview was in
the street), she had endeavoured to pass
him, but Edgar was not to be so served.
He stopped to inquire for her arm, and to
shake hands, and then he discovered he
was going the same way, and walked with
her as far as the draper's shop at which she
was going to make some purchases. The
Goslingford public, having discovered that
Hannah Brown had met the Smiths, at
Miss Richards' tea-party, without any
terrific social explosion, or even without
that heavy gloom which usually results
from inharmonious elements in a party,
immediately began to follow the example
set by good Miss Harriet, and to invite
Hannah Brown to meet the Smiths. It

166 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

saved the Goslingford party-givers the
uncomfortable alternative of either leaving
Hannah to mope alone in the dismal soli-
tude of the Old Red House, or of giving an-
other set of little, inferior parties, especially
for her benefit. Old Brown had for many
years — ever since Mrs. Brown's death — given
up promiscuous party-giving and party-
going. About once a-year he entertained
his own old friends, and year by year these
were diminishing in number. Often Miss
Wellby dropped in to tea ; and occasionally
she and the Greenfield family were more for-
mally invited to the same old-fashioned
meal ; but with these exceptions, the Browns
did not see any society. The Smiths, on
the contrary, were the greatest party-givers
in the place. Many people — nay, most
people — said it was very foolish and unne-
cessary in them to give so many parties, and

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 167

such expensive parties, and to introduce so
many fashions unheard-of in Goslingford ;
still nobody liked to be left out at these
parties, and, in consequence, at the best
Goslingford reunions it was felt that,
whoever was omitted, the Smiths must
be asked.

Hannah Brown could not be quite
ignored. Goslingford gentility had an here-
ditary respect for the Browns. They were
the oldest and most resj)ected family in
the place — identified as it were with the
respectability of the Borough itself. So
respectable they were, that the mere fact of
visiting them was in itself respectable.
Then people were sorry for " poor Hannah,"
" she was so inoffensive, and led such a
dull life," though many doubted if she
found it dull. Then she would be rich
some day, and it was not an uncommon

168 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

opinion in Goslingford, though Miss Wellby
and Mr. Greenfield dissented from it, that
Hannah Brown would be the Harriet
Eichards of the next Goslintrford ^en-
eration.

This notion had, however, somewhat
begun to decline since the advent of
Edgar Smith, and since Hannah Brown
was more seen at the gayer Goslingford
parties.

Monkeys are not more imitative then
men, and we imitate not onlv fashions of
dress and manner, but fashions of thought
and opinion. How many of us, I wonder,
have an original opinion even about the
colour of a ribbon ? Some have certainly,
but a small minority. On the other hand,
let anyone of us only have sufficient self-
confidence, or effrontery, to maintain
boldly, and without the weakness of the

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 169

smallest hesitation, any opinion on any
subject, and it will soon be echoed all
round with equal confidence.

And so, as Edgar Smith had discovered
that Hannah Brown was pretty, other
people now found out that there was
something " very interesting " in her ap-
pearance, she "was much improved," and
" really did look pretty." And, when this
was once acknowledged, the Goslingford
beaux would not let Edgar Smith have
her all to himself. They stood behind
her chair, and fetched her fan, and talked
mainly to her, and she was, in one sense,
much gratified, even sometimes when she
was ready to yawn in their faces with
very weariness, from the dismal dearth
of sense or wit in the conversation, which
she felt a compliment.

Poor, simple Hannah Brown ! I fear

170 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

you despise her, and think she had no
greatness of soul. It was so pleasant to
her to think, after all, she could be
attractive like other people. Should you
like to feel yourself despised and neglected,
dear reader? No, of course you would
not — by people of judgment; but you
would not mind what such people as the
Goslingford people thought. But then
Hannah Brown knew no other people.
Goslingford was her world, and not so
much unlike the great world, perhaps,
as one might at first imagine.

And now, 1 fancy I see the utter
contempt with which you of the en-
larged mind, who have spent seasons in
London, and seasons in Paris; to whom
the mer de glace is as familiar as the
German or Atlantic Oceans, and who
have even " wintered at Rome,^' view the

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 171

smallness and the narrowness of Goslino^-
ford life. Yet the Goslingford world
was just as important to the Goslingford
people, as your great world is to you.
And why not ? What do the inhabi-
tants of Neptune, for instance, if propor-
tioned mentally to the size of their planet,
and if the old-fashioned notion be cor-
rect, that there are *' more worlds than
one," think of us ? Something similar,
probably, to what you think of the Gos-
lingford people.

In old-fashioned houses one sometimes
sees, at the end of a room, a little convex
mirror — there are many such in Gosling-
ford— which affords, in diminished per-
spective, a view of the apartment and its
inmates. I have often watched with
amusement, the little gestures, the seem-
ingly mimic graces of these Lilliputian

172 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

men and women, and, in doing so, have
been invaded by a sense of the ludicrous.
And yet these tiny figures were our very
selves. It was only their proportions
that gave them a tinge of absurdity.
Now, the doings of dukes, and countesses,
and statesmen, and authors on the theatre
of the great world, are, after all, animated
by the same motives, and stimulated by the
same ambition, as those of the Goslingford
people on their little country-town theatre.
The difference is in the size of the stage,
not in the passions of its actors.

But this is very stale, you will say.
Dean Swift showed us, Ions: ago, in
Gulliver, how small, and contemptible,
and degraded we all are. He did. But
I want to show you, amid all its small-
nesses, how the universal human heart,
even reflected in the convex lens of a

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 173

country town, has its noble as well as its
trivial side.

" No man is a hero to his valet-de-
chambre,'* says the adage. I think it is
Carlyle who remarks, that if this be true
it is the valet's fault. Now, all life is
noble to those who are noble enough
to look through the trivialities which
overlie the outside. Perhaps the feeling
of the nobleman, who, for the first time,
appears at the drawing-room in blue
ribbon and star, may even be akin to
that of Miss Westcote, when she as-
tonishes a Goslingford party with a new
specimen of Buttonborough milliner}^ ;
or, when Mrs. Smith makes a new do-
mestic financial arrangement, which adds
to the family comfort, wnile it saves the
family purse, has she not a feeling, in
its small and humble way, akin to that

174 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

of Mr. Gladstone or Mr. Disraeli when
they achieve, or think they have achieved,
a like feat in the production of the new
budget ?

But to return to Hannah Brown. She
had, as far as was possible with one so
shy, become the fashion at Goslingford ;
though it is probable, had Edgar Smith
not had an opinion of his own, she might
have been one of those flowers born to
blush unseen, merely because the world
does not see with its own eyes. And is
this an uncommon thing in the great
world ? How many faces have we
thought beautiful because some leader
of fashion said they were beautiful !
How many books have we cried up as
clever, merely because some authority
made it the fashion to think so !

Dancing was not a very favourite

THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 175

amusement at Goslingford. Still dancing-
parties did occasionally take place, and
were looked, upon as great events by
Young Goslingford. They were talked
about for a week before and a week after
their occurrence. Miss Harriet Richards,
of course, thought dancing a sin ; and
equally, of course, Miss Clara Wellby took
a directly contrary view.

" I have no patience, Harriet, with
people dancing till they are too old and
too wrinkled to find partners, and then
turninof round on the young and the
blooming, and saying, * You shall not
dance — it is a sin ! ' any more than I
should have any patience with a man
who was ordered by his physician to
abstain from wine, and then went about
preaching tee-totalism as essential to sal-
vation. Very like the old fable of the

176 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

dog and the manger, which I sometimes
think must have been made prophetically
for the present generation. I remember
when the Smiths thought it a sin to
dance, but now that they have stylish
grown-up daughters, they seem to have
changed their minds."

Poor Harriet returned no answer. This
especial backsliding of the Smiths was a
sore subject with her. If they had been
any persons but themselves, she would
have had, and would have declared, very
decided opinions on the point. But the
Smiths ! And she thought and said it
was some great and temporary delusion
under which such pious people would not
be permitted long to remain.

Some people, no doubt, will say that
Miss Harriet was not very consistent ; but
who among us is ? — and what a world

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 177

this would be — how hard, how uncharit-
able, how unloving, if everybody's conduct
was in logical sequence with everybody's
opinion. Then let us be thankful there
is so little consistency.

As it was a moot point in (roslingford,
Hannah Brown had taken it into con-
sideration whether or not it was right to
dance. Now Hannah had rather an un-
common way of deciding such points —
differing, for instance, from that of the
Miss Smiths. When she was very fond
of anything she was not at all ingenious
in discovering reasons in its favour, but
generally suspected its harmlessness, so
singularly was it a fixed idea in her
mind that self-denial rather than self-
indulgence was the root of all virtue.
Now, Hannah had hitherto rather disliked
dancing. When she had danced it was

VOL. I. N

176 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

rather to oblige society than to please
herself, so that the temptations of dancing
being unfelt by her, her conscience had
pronounced it harmless; but she would
not join Aunt Clara in condemning as
conceited and self-righteous those who
thouo:ht otherwise. If she and Miss
Wellby ever quarrelled, it was about Lucy
Greenfield, the Rector's third daughter,
who, young, admired, and beautiful, had
declared for the other side of the ques-
tion.

This, Miss Wellby was of opinion, arose
from conceit and spiritual pride ; but
Hannah, with her wider sympathies, could
feel for the poor girl who had not only
renounced triumphs which her own heart
whispered must be gratifying to woman's
vanity, but bore bravely, though, per-
chance, with keenest sufi*ering, all the

■ THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 179

misconstruction and the hard judgment to
which the insulted self-complacency of
others subjected her.

" Don't talk to me, Hannah. Is she
not saying to all the other girls in Gos-
lingford, ' Stand by, I am holier than
thou?'"

" I cannot see that, Aunt Clara.
Dancing, without being a sin to other
people, might be a sin to her, if it made
her vain or jealous, or took her mind
away from her duties."

*' Then if it did so, she should have
been ashamed of having such a mind,
and have humbled herself instead of set-
ting herself up. She ought not to have
allowed herself to feel such things."

" Perhaps the very reason she has
given up dancing is because she will not
allow herself."

n2

180 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

" Don't talk nonsense to me, Hannah.
We shall hear of you doing the same
some day."

" There is not much fear of my being
tempted in the same way/' said poor
Hannah, with a half-regretful sigh.

But the time was nearer, perhaps, than
Hannah expected. She had plenty of
partners now, but, somehow or other,
it did not elate or interest her much.
She had a deeper interest now in a
party than the mere hope of receiving
her share of attention (more than her
share the humble Hannah had never
aimed at), and the almost certainty that
this hope would be gratified, lent to her
mind a pleasurable, though not violent,
excitement, which left little room for
other emotions.

There was to be a grand party at Mr.

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 181

Splint's. Mr. Splint was the principal
surgeon in Goslingford. He had risen
from small beginnings, but he was really
a clever man and a conscientious man,
and had prospered accordingly. He had
married early in life, and had a goodly
array of sons and daughters of all sizes,
from two feet in height to six. The
party was given in honour of the ma-
jority of his eldest son — a tall, red-
whiskered youth, who was intended to
follow the profession of his father.

Mr. Splint lived at the end of one of
the cross streets of Goslingford, in a large
house with green railings in front, and a
great many staring windows, looking on
the street. This house had once had three
pointed gables, but had been new-fronted
in the time of Mr. Splint's predecessor —
a change which had been thought a great

182 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

improvement. Behind the house there
was a very large garden and orchard,
which, on this festive occasion, was to be
decorated with arches, flowers, &c. But
Mr. Splint did not, like the Smiths, imitate
the manners and hours of the great world.
Like most of the Goslingford people, he
thought four the proper hour for a dinner
party, and seven for an evening party;
and a chorus of praise arose from all
quarters on account of his good sense.
It must have been from a singular
opacity of intellectual vision in Hannah
Brown that she could not perceive the
superiority of sense connected with an
entertainment which began at four in the
afternoon and lasted all round the clock.
It struck her that it would have been
pleasanter divided into three. She was
not, however, asked to the four o'clock

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 183

dinner, but to the seven o'clock ball.
There were to be only gentlemen at the
dinner, which Edgar Smith had previously
told Hannah Brown he considered a
remnant of barbarism, and a practice
which, when he had a house of his own,
he would set his face against.

" That is," he continued, looking away
from her, and with less self-possession
than she had ever seen in him before,
"that is, if my wife (if I am so happy
as ever to possess a wife) should be of
my opinion." Then, suddenly raising his
eyes, and looking Hannah full in the
face, but with a raised colour, he asked,
" What would you do, Miss Brown ? "

But Hannah's heart had almost per-
formed the feat to which, under certain
circumstances, these fleshly force-pumps
are said to be prone, of jumping into her

184 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

mouth, and agitation would not permit
her to reply, more especially as they
were in the street. They had met at a
call on Miss Richards, and Edgar's way
had lain in the same direction as
Hannah's. Ere either of them could
speak again, they were joined by Miss
Wellby, who had crossed the street on
purpose, a little to the discomfiture of
Hannah, and not a little to the chagrin
of Edgar.

" I am just going home, Hannah, so
we will walk together. I met your mother
looking for you in North Street, Mr.
Edgar, so we will not detain you. Good
morning."

"Good morning, Miss Wellby," he
answered, almost fiercely, and then turn-
ing to Hannah, he continued, with a slight
glance of defiance at her self-elected com-

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 185

panion, " T shall wish the hours away
to-morrow between the dinner and the
ball."

*' Hannah! Hannah!" said Aunt Clara,
as soon as he was gone, "what does this
mean ?"

"I don't know," said Hannah, meekly,
but she was not sad.

186 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

CHAPTER TX.

MRS. splint's ball.

Edgar Smith was by no means, in a
general way, indifferent to the attractions
of turtle soup, venison, champagne, and
port of the twenty vintage, and the
other good cheer which the old-fashioned
English hospitality of Goslingford piqued
itself on setting before its guests on grand
occasions. But in spite of these gastro-
nomic alleviations of their tedium, the

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 187

three hours passed at table, on Mr.
Frederick Splint's birthday, did seem to
him more intolerably long than any three
hours in his life had ever seemed before.
He was, moreover, almost perfectly silent —
quite a phenomenon in Edgar Smith.

Hannah Brown, in the meantime, was
dressing for the ball. Aunt Clara arrived
to superintend the completion of her
toilet, and to act as her diaper one ^ for in
spite of her annoyance of the previous day,
and her dread of what the evening might
bring forth, a ball toilet, and Hannah
Brown's ball toilet, was a subject of too
engrossing interest not for the moment to
supersede all other considerations. Miss
Clara pronounced her young friend's dress
to be *' very nice." In her heart she
thought her looking something very much
beyond very nice, but it was contrary to

188 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

Miss Wellby's principles to make anybody-
conceited.

And as Hannah stood in front of the old
mirror on the end wall of her bedroom,
contemplating her figure by the red light
of a September sunset, she did not herself
feel discouraged. In truth, the Goslingford
people were not mistaken when they said
Hannah Brown was improved. She wore
a very pretty and becoming dress certainly ;
but it was not, as Miss Clara supposed,
to it that the improved looks were due ;
for though the snowy folds of her drapery
showed to advantage her slender figure,
though her coronet of oak leaves and
acorns was elegant as well as Druidical,
though the diamond brooch which had
been her mothers glittered bright on
her modest bosom, the difference was
owing rather to the fuller life which

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 189

had sent the blood to her cheek in a
warmer glow, and given to her eye the
excitement of hope. Even her long brown
ringlets seemed to share in the improve-
ment, and to have this evening a softer
and more graceful fall. Poor Hannah
Brown ! This night was the culminating
point of her youth — perhaps the only
night of her life in which she felt really
young.

Hannah was looking quite as well, only
with a little higher colour and rather
brighter eyes, when she and Miss Wellby
were ushered into Mrs. Splint's drawing-
room. Mrs. Splint's drawing-room was a
large, long room, with a large window at
one end — now open, and with two or three
steps down into the garden. Not many of
the evening guests had arrived. Miss
Westcote was there, however, in a re-

190 THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS.

splendent Buttonborough dress— all pink
and gold, and flowers, and slightly sug-
gestive of a performance on the tight rope.
The gentlemen had not come in from the
dining-room, and Hannah felt a momentary
sensation of disappointment. But as she
finished shaking hands with Mrs. Splint,
and the three g^rown-up Miss Splints, she
heard her name pronounced behind her by
a voice which brought an additional rush
of blood to her cheeks, and made her
foolish heart beat with nervous agitation,
for there are certain kinds of pleasure
which feel not very different from pain.

" I hope you are not engaged for the first
quadrille. Miss Brown ? " said Edgar boldly,
before everybody, and with a certain air
of devotion, as if he did not care whether
people remarked upon it or not. Hannah
answered in a very low tone, and very

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 191

shyly, that she was not engaged, on which
Edgar placed himself by her side, evidently
with the intention of waiting till the
dancing should commence. This was not
for some time ; but, in the meantime,
little passed between them. There was a
slight mutual awkwardness, which lasted
even through the quadrille. When that
dance was finished, they stood together at
the window — Edgar seeming resolved not
to leave his partner ; yet the awkwardness,
if possible, increased. A waltz was now
played, and a few couples were soon on the
floor.

Waltzing was not a favourite dance in
Goslingford, and at the time I write of,
had not been long introduced. Miss Wellby
was more lively in her condemnation of
it even than Miss Richards, and she now
sat down at the far end of the room in

192 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS.

virtuous indignation. This was an un-
fortunate evening for poor Miss Clara.
Edgar Smith's conduct had chafed her not
a little, and now this waltzing quite upset
her already irritated spirits.

" The young people of the present day,"
she said, " have no sense of propriety,
and their wilfulness is beyond endurance.
What is the world coming to ? "

Example is catching, and even though it
was in prudish English Goslingford, there
were now many pairs whirling round in the
dizzy foreign maze.

" Will you join in the waltz, Miss
Brown?" said Edgar Smith.

*' Thank you, I— I don't waltz."

Edgar's blue eye positively sparkled.
^'I am glad you don't," he said, "for I
would rather be denied the pleasure of
waltzing with you than see any one else

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 193

do SO. The people here say I have foreign
ways, but you see, I am old-fashioned and
English enough in some of my feelings.
Will you take a turn in the garden, while
these people are dancing? I see two or
three persons there already."

Hannah's silence passed for assent, and
he led her doAvn the steps into the garden.

It was by no means a very tasteful
garden; still, smooth shaven turf and bright
flowers, however arranged, must always
possess some beauty. The evening too was
very fine — ^bright and clear as fine evenings
generally are in early September — and the
golden radiance of the autumn twilight had
begun to give place to the colder light of
stars, while the crescent moon grew every
moment brighter as it sank in the darken-
ing sky, over the fading meadows. The air
was soft and tepid, but it seemed fresh and

vo;l. I. o

194 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

cool after the steaming ball-room ; and
the magnolia over the drawing-room win-
dows filled it with fragrance.

Hannah Brown leant on the arm of
Edgar Smith. He could feel that her
fingers trembled a little, but that might
have been from the heat and the dancing.
His own heart, however, thumped so loudly
that he fancied she must hear it.

" You have read ' Romeo and Juliet,'
Miss Brown, have you not? though you
have never had the advantage of being at
a ladies' college?" Ye — yes," said Hannah,
and he felt sure now her hands did tremble.

"And what do you think of the Mon-
tagues and Capulets?"

"Think of them!— How?"

"Don't you think they were fools?
They hated each other till they had lost
all that was worth livino; for, and then,

THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 195

when it was too late, they were reconciled.
So most people do. It is the way of the
world." Edgar paused, but Hannah made
no response. He then continued, — " I think
quarrels between families, of all kinds,
peculiarly foolish and wicked There is
more excuse for personal quarrels. I
always hated them. Miss Brown, and
always made up my mind that I would
have nothing to do with them. How easy
is it to misconstrue a man's every act,
if one wishes to do so ! "

" Very easy, " said Hannah, who
thought Edgar Smith the noblest-minded
of men.

"You agree with me, then," he said,
and he looked eagerly down on her face,
which she hastily turned towards the
ground.

" Yes," she said '' I do," but her tongue

0-2

196 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS.

felt SO tied and heavy, it could hardly
utter the three short words.

" But I would not act like Romeo, that
is, if I were in Romeo's place. I would
have gone boldly to old Capulet, like an
honourable man ; and it is my belief, from
what followed, that, if Romeo had done
so, he might have married Juliet in the face
of day, instead of in the sneaking way he
did. I do not approve of any one of the
lot. Tell me what you think. I would
give worlds to know."

" I — T," but Hannah's lips closed ; her
bodily powers seemed under some strange
mesmeric, benumbing influence; and yet
she knew — by clairvoyance probably^as
her eyes were still on the ground, that
his were riveted on her.

" Hannah ! if you will give me leave, I
will go to your father to-morrow and tell

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 197

him how 1 love you. May I — Hannah ? "
She said neither yes nor no; but he
knew what she meant, and taking her
hand, which yet rested on his arm, he led
her round the garden, and talked the
nonsense which is sweeter far than wisdom,
let moralists and philosophers say what
they please. And when at last Hannah,
who now knew from experience —

*' How silver sweet sound lovers' tongues by night,"

awoke to a sense that something was due
to society and the Splints, and urged a return
to the dancing room, people said he made
himself quite ridiculous. Hannah, herself,
hardly liked it. And yet she was happy —
wildly happy.

Till the end of her life, that night at
the Splints seemed as it did even now,
while yet real and present a bewildering,

198 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

intoxicating vision. The ground she trod
did not seem like the solid earth ; the light,
and the music, and the moving figures,
appeared all phantom-like; and the voice
of her lover, and the eager cares with
which he encircled her, more unreal,
though more sweet, than anything besides.

Poor Clara Wellby sat in dismay. She
was cross and perturbed, and when Edgar
handed Hannah to her carriage, shawling
and cloaking her with the deepest in-
terest, and beseeching her not to catch
cold, she fumed and chafed and almost
scolded.

"Hannah," she said, as they drove off,
" I have seldom spent such a night of
vexation and annoyance. You know I
warned you at the very beginning what
this folly and nonsense would lead to."

"Oh, Aunt Clara!"' said Hannah, be-

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 199

seechingly, and laying her head on her old
friend's shoulder, " do let me be happy
for this one night."

Clara said no more ; but as she stroked
the long tresses which hung over her own
bosom, Hannah fancied she heard her
murmur, " Poor child ! "

200 THE BROWKS AND THE SMITHS.

CHAPTER X.

A CRISIS.

Hannah slept but little the night after
Mrs. Splint's ball. Her head was in a
whirl, her heart beat, and her excitement
was almost feverish. About an hour before
getting-up time, she fell into a disturbed,
dreamy slumber, from which she was
awakened by the housemaid, with the
warm water. Poor Hannah I She looked
very pale and haggard this morning. A
sort of re-action had come from the ex-

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 201

citeinent of the previous evening, and the
anxieties of the coming day appeared almost
too great to be borne.

Mr. Brown always came home to dinner
punctually at three o'clock, and this was
the hour chosen for Edgar's important
interview with him.

It yet wanted five minutes to three
o'clock. Hannah was in the drawing-
room, and her father standing on the
terrace walk in front of the windows, when
Edgar's knock at the door almost took
away her breath. The window was open,
so she heard her father's slight, gruff
exclamation of surprise, and beheld his
somewhat chagrined countenance as the
servant announced to him that Mr. Edgar
Smith was in the book-room, and wished
to see him. And now, how can I give you
an idea of poor Hannah's state of mind ?

202 THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS.

How long that agony of suspense lasted,
she could not herself have told. At first,
she tried to take her needlework; but
she laid it down again immediately, and
began to walk up and down the old
drawing-room. How loud and how slow
the time-piece on the high, carved wooden
chimney-piece ticked ! It seemed to echo
the throbs of poor Hannah's heart. Then
she stood still for a minute, and looked
out on the garden. The lengthening
shadow of the spire already began to
project tapering into the middle, and
beyond and around the September sun-
shine looked so bright and calm, that
her agitated spirits seemed to sicken at
the contrast.

For many a long day the sight of that
scene of silence and sunshine pierced
Hannah's heart like a poisoned arrow. She

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 203

turned from, it and mechanically took up
the books and ornaments on the table.
Then she opened the door, as if from the
farther corner of the house, where her father
and lover were closeted, she could hear some
sign of her fate. How interminable seemed
the time ! And yet it was only a few minutes.

At last, the bell of the book-room (Mr.
Brown would not allow it to be dignified
with the title of library,) rang sharply.
Hannah felt as if she must faint. It
seemed to her that the maid was never
going to answer it. She threw herself
upon the sofa. She heard footsteps ap-
proaching the drawing-room.

"If you please. Miss," said the maid,
" Master wishes to see you in the book-
room immediately."

The crisis of her fate had indeed come.
Her legs seemed almost to refuse to bear

204 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

her along the passage, and when she came
to the door she gasped for breath.

Mr. Brown and Edgar Smith were both
standing. Edgar at the window, appa-
rently looking out on the church-yard ; Mr.
Brown at a writing-table in the middle of
the room.

Hannah dared not look at her father's
face ; but she instinctively felt it was a bad
omen that her lover did not advance
to meet her, or even turn to her on
her entrance. He made, however, an
involuntary twitching movement as he
heard the door open and close. Hannah
took hold of the back of a chair. The
moment was sickening.

'' Hannah ! " said her father, and one
could perceive that it was only with an
effort he spoke firmly, " this young
gentleman, this Mr. Edgar Smith, tells

THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 205

me that it is with your consent that
he comes here to ask mine to his
marrying you. Is this true ? "

Hannah could just find words to
answer — " Yes, father." She trembled
excessively ; but she was beginning
to get less nervous, though more
alarmed.

" Hannah," he said, and there was
grief and severity in his tone; "had I
not heard this from your own lips, I
could not have believed it. Are you
aware that this gentleman is one of a
family who would do anything — any-
thing not in the world's opinion dis-
honest— to better themselves, that they
even avow such principles? Have you
forgotten, poor simple girl, that you are
the only heir of my fortune, and has
it never struck you that to a Smith

206 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

that may have been one of your chief
attractions? "

Here Edgar turned fiercely round, and
confronted Mr. Brown with angry eyes.
Edgar, though he was not quite blind
to family faults, like all the Smiths,
had strong family affections. But if he
intended to speak, Hannah prevented
him.

"Father," she said, firmly, "you are
mistaken. He would have loved me all
the same, if I had not had sixpence.
I know he would."

" Thank you, Hannah — thank you for
ever," said the lover, earnestly.

" You have great confidence in your
own charms, it appears," said Mr. Brown.

"No, father; but I have great con-
fidence in Mr. Smith's sincerity."

" God bless you, Hannah ! " said the

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 207

young man, "now no accusation can
wound me."

"Fine words, and the folly of a
lovesick girl," said Mr. Brown, " will
not alter facts, will not excuse you, Mr.
Smith, for clandestinely stealing ray
daughter's heart, when you must have
known such an alliance would be dis-
tasteful to me."

"Sir, I have not clandestinely stolen
your daughter's heart, I have sought
her in the face of the world, and the
moment I have known my affection
was returned, I have sought your coun-
tenance. I knew there were grudges
between the families, but I hoped this
union might have been the means of
terminating feelings which are neither
right nor wise."

"Perhaps, young man, your elders

208 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

may be as good judges of that as you.
And now, Hannah, that you know my
opinion, and I think you ought to have
known it from the beginning, will you
inform me what you intend to do ? "

Hannah looked up in amazement, and
faltered out something about her father's
consent. Old William Brown fcecame
very pale, set his lips firmly, and
answered —

" That I should willingly consent that
you make yourself miserable for life, is
impossible. Hannah, you have but one
alternative. You are my only child — '
the only thing left to me on earth to
comfort my old age. Marry this man,
and I will not curse you, I will not
disinherit ycu ; but if you do, you will
break my heart, and bring my grey
hairs with sorrow to the grave."

THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 209

For a moment there was a pause.

If William Brown had been pale, his
daughter became many degrees paler; but
her trembling and her nervousness were
over for the moment. She stood upright,
and said in a firm though very low tone :

"Then, father, I will not marry him."

But now Edgar started forward, his
eyes sparkling, and his chest heaving :

" You will not marry me ! I could
not have believed this unless I had heard
it from your own lips — I could not
have believed that you — you would
have been so heartless and cruel ! "

Hannah burst into tears — this was
more than she could bear.

" Oh, Edgar ! I am not heartless. If
you knew — Don't reproach me, for I can-
not bear it ! "

" Nothino^ on earth would have induced

. VOL. I. P

210 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

me to give you up ; but your woman's
love is weak and shallow."

"I think, sir," said Mr. Brown, "this
interview had better terminate. It must
be highly painful to my daughter, and,
as a gentleman, you must wish to spare
her."

" God knows I would have given my
life for her," said the young man, bitterly.
" Farewell, Hannah — farewell, for ever —
since so you wish it to be."

She made no answer in words, only
her eyes, for one moment, sought his,
with a mute, deprecating appeal. He
took no notice of it then, but in after-
days that look often haunted him pain-
fully.

And so it was all over !

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 211

CHAPTER XL

PUBLIC OPINION IN GOSLINGFORD

4

IS DIVIDED.

And now came the long days of trial
for Hannah Brown. Hannah was re-
solved not to be ill. She rose the follow-
ing morning at her usual time, and made
her fathers breakfast. Then she tried
to employ herself. Reading Avas impos-
sible. Housekeeping for an hour or two
did better. Then she tried to work, but

p2

212 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

the time had not yet come even for that.
In that way she could not escape from
her own thoughts.

She was thankful when, at last, Clara
Wellby came — Clara, whose company she
could often have dispensed with, though
she was, at all times, grateful to her for
her kindness. Clara saw it all at a glance,
and her talkative sympathy, at this
period, was not out of place. Hannah
had not yet arrived at the time when
sorrow seeks silence, and shrinks with
dread from any infringement of it. Clara
proposed that Hannah should go out
with her, and make a few calls, and
Hannah acceded. Anything to escape
from her own recollections !

It was not long ere the Goslingford
world became acquainted with the new
phase of the ancient feud between the

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 213

Browns and the Smiths. And once more,
as they had often been before, the rival
merits and demerits of the two famiUes be-
came the engrossing topic of conversation,
and parties ran high. Various reports
were circulated with regard to the inter-
view between Edgar Smith and Mr. Brown.
Some said that Mr. Brown had turned
the young man out of the house, while
others averred that he had threatened
Hannah with the same usage, if she ever
spoke to her lover again. This, or some-
thing like it, was one version of the
affair believed and circulated by the
Smithian partisans. The Brownites main-
tained, on the contrary, that they did
not believe that Mr. Brown ever thought
of turning his daughter out of the house,
or Edgar Smith either, and that if he
did in the latter case, it only served him

214 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

right. Everybody knew that the Smiths
were always looking after money, and
would do anything to get it. Nobody
but themselves, under the circumstances,
would ever have thought of getting
old Brown's money, but they stuck at
nothing. Poor Hannah was a girl who
had seen nothing of the world, and was
not accustomed to much admiration,
and it was no wonder, poor thing, she
had been so easily taken in. Her
father had done the really kind thing
by her, and she would live to thank
him.

On the other hand, the Smith party
were quite as indignant at Hannah as
at her father. Instead of being the
quiet nobody of a girl everybody had
supposed, she had turned out an arrant
flirt, and, after giving poor Edgar Smith

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 215

every possible encouragement (had not
everybody seen her outrageous flirting
at Mrs. Splint's?), she had given him
up in the coolest and most heartless
manner. It was quite nonsense to say
she could not help it. Mrs. Smith
herself had said Hannah had behaved
most heartlessly, and that she was
thankful, for her part, that it was all
quite over. And to this the Brownites
were prone to answer that the grapes
were sour.

What really did occur at the inter-
view in Mr. Brown's book-room, nobody
ever did know, except Miss Wellby.
All that Miss Clara would say to the
world was, that Hannah Brown had
behaved most nobly, that there was not
one in Goslingford good enough for
her, and that she did not blame Mr.

216 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

Brown either. But Miss Richards, being
a Smithite, did blame Mr. Brown. He
had acted in a most unchristian manner.
But '' what could you expect from a
man who thought week-day sermons out
of place ? '^ She would not, however, join
in the censure on Hannah. She had
"always liked the poor girl, though,
perhaps, she had flirted a little lately."
Miss Richards had, besides, very ex-
alted notions of what was due to
parental authority. So she comfortably
laid all the blame on Mr. Brown, and,
whenever his name was mentioned,
sighed, and added —

"And a man of his age, too ! Ah !
it is very sad."

On which. Miss Wellby would iire up
and answer —

" Sad ! It is very sad, I think, that

THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 217

Mr. Smith should be so fond of money
at his age. And covetousness, you
know, is idolatry, just all the same,
Harriet, as if he told his beads to the
Virgin."

" Ah ! but his views — his views are
so sound — his foundation so different
from "

" So much the worse for him, if he
knows what is right, and does not do
it. What is the use of a foundation if
it has no superstructure ? "

*' Oh ! Clara, surely you must know
what I mean by ''

"Indeed, Harriet, I never know what
you mean, except that everybody of
your way of thinking is right, and
everybody of any other way wrong, no
matter what their actions." And Miss
Clara laughed her triumphant laugh

218 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

over her prostrate friend and adversary.
But, as we all know,

" A man convinced against his will,
Is of the same opinion still."

And so is a woman. Miss Richards
was not to be induced to think like
Miss Wellby. Nor was any Smithite
persuaded to become a Brownite, nor
any Brownite converted to Smithism,
as far as I know. All the arguing
and disputing, and gossiping and
counter-gossiping, went for nothing, or,
rather, tended only to confirm the
separate parties more strongly in their
own opinions. Mrs. Westcote, for in-
stance, who, from the first, took strong
Smith views, thought " that parents,
when the choice of their children was
respectable, had much to answer for in
thwarting their afi'ections," while Miss

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 219

Westcote was lost in astonishment at
the heartlessness of Hannah Brown.
*' She could not understand any woman
acting so to the man she loved. If
she loved anybody, she would never
give him up — she would die for him —
she would live on bread and water for
his sake — she would gladly jump into
the sea for him — she considered it a
woman's privilege, as well as duty, to
sacrifice everything for the man she
loved." These sentiments were main-
tained everywhere vehemently by Miss
Westcote, and a more or less garbled
account of them reached the ears of
Edgar Smith himself.

At the very next party at which he
met her (Hannah Brown was not there,
she was not asked to meet the Smiths
now), he placed himself beside her, and

220 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

devoted himself to her. Miss Westcote
began to feel that her hour of triumph
was coming at last. She bridled and
giggled, and the next day bought two
new dresses and a new bonnet. Miss
Westcote had great faith in the effect of
silk and feathers on the male mind, or
rather heart. She had not much idea of
any other ornaments than the plaiting of
hair and the wearing of gold and apparel.
It was now remarked by the Gos-
lingford people that Edgar Smith was
much seen with Miss Westcote, and ap-
peared to be consoling himself for the
loss of Hannah Brown. " Quite right,"
said the Smithites ; " why should he
wear the willow all his life for a cold-
hearted jilt like Hannah Brown, who
could go out and pay morning visits
the very day her love-affair was broken

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 221

off ?" And, " See," said the Brownites,
''he never really cared for her. It was
her money after all, and Mary Westcote
is a fool not to see that he only takes
her five thousand because he cannot get
Hannah's fifteen."

Hannah Brown saw them herself one
day, when she was sitting in Mrs. Splint's
front parlour window, going down the street
together, and the sight sent the blood all
curdling back to her heart. She had been
speaking to Mrs. Splint, when all of a sud-
den she stopped, stammered, and became
very pale. Mrs. Splint was near the window,
too, and saw who was passing. She was
a kind-hearted and sensible woman, and
divining the truth in a moment, brought
her guest a glass of wine herself, and
made her swallow it. Mrs. Splint, in a
very quiet way, was a Brownite — in a

222 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

very quiet way, however, for Smiths and
Browns were both patients of her hus-
band's, and he never espoused any party
cause. But Mrs. Splint knew that her
eldest son, Fred, admired Mary Westcote,
and at their party she had encouraged
him not a little; and Mrs. Splint herself
had looked favourably on the budding
courtship. Now, she felt very angry with
Edgar Smith for interfering with Fred's
affections and prospects, and full of pity
for poor Hannah Brown. In spite of
her husband, she would never again sit
silent when Hannah Brown was accused
of heartlessness. Mrs. Splint '' was sure
she was not heartless. She had not
flirted with anybody else since."

" Perhaps," said Mrs. Westcote, with a
sneer, "she has not had an opportunity."
To which Mrs. Splint had replied: —

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 223

" Oh, anybody that wants to flirt, Mrs.
Westcote, need be at no loss for an
opportunity."

224 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

CHAPTER XI r.

THE SPRING WINDS.

Hannah Brown had kept her resolution.
She had not given way, she had not
fainted, she had not fallen ill, or taken
to her bed, or shut herself up from the
world; but it had been a hard struggle.
Her father, whose powers of observation,
as far at least as the character and
feelings of his daughter Hannah were
concerned, were not very keen, thought

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 225

she had not felt her disappointment
much ; that it had been merely a passing
girlish fancy ; that he had acted the part
of a kind father, and that in her after-
life she would be grateful to him. From
the day of his interview with Edgar
Smith he seemed, however, to have
tacitly yielded her a new position. Old
Brown — prejudiced, narrow-minded old
country attorney as he was — had nothing
mean or vulgar in his feelings. Because
his daughter had fallen in love once
without his knowledge, he did not, there-
fore, suspect her for evermore of being
ready to form clandestine attachments.
On the contrary, though he little appre-
ciated the sacrifice she had actually made,
he felt grateful to her for the surrender
of her own wishes to his will, and never
for one moment doubted her entire sin-
VOL. I. Q

226 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

cerity. He respected his daughter more
than he had ever done before, and he
would have liked to testify to her the
increased estimation in which he held
her. Tenderness, it was not in the unde-
monstrative nature of William Brown to
exhibit, neither could he take Hannah
into his confidence or companionship.
Girls, of course, could not understand
business; and he could as little under-
stand needlework and dress, which he
imagined to be their chief sources of
interest. But what he could do, he did.
She was allowed to have entirely her
own way in everything; if she was late,
which rarely happened, or committed any
other sin against her father's love of
method or punctuality, she met with
no reproaches or gloomy looks now.
Then, he not only gave his consent as

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 227

in former days, but suggested visits to
Buttonborougli ; and taking Miss Wellby
into his confidence, Hannah would find,
besides her always liberal allowance for
clothes, presents of handsome new# dresses
and fashionable ornaments. Hannah was
much touched by these acts of kindness,
but they could not fill the void in her
breast, or occupy the long hours of her
weary days.

It would be impossible to describe the
heart-sinking blank of the days and
nights of the long winter which succeeded
that sunny September, so pregnant with
influence on the simple history of Hannah
Brown — that September which gave a
new edge and a more romantic interest
to the ancient feud between the Browns
and the Smiths. As the months passed,
the heavy pressure of existence without

Q 2

228 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

aim or hope began to tell on Hannah
Brown. She became every day paler and
more dejected, and she suffered much
with headache. No wonder, when the
struggle to keep up during the day was
succeeded, as soon as she laid her head
on her pillow at night, by bursts of tears
and hours of wakeful misery.

It must not be supposed that Hannah
had no religion. She did pray, poor
girl ! and with fervour, and she was com-
forted often by the hope of a world
where there would be no cruel quarrels,
no blank uselessness ; but, in the mean-
time, life seemed so long, so tedious I

Hannah's imagination never pictured
for herself an early death, but, rather, a
long, loveless life. Poor Hannah ! she was
not an angelic paragon — only an erring,
suffering, loving woman, with times of

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 229

darkness and moments of doubt ; but
through all, believing in the Love and
Wisdom which had seen fit thus to try
her.

Among other expedients she tried to
attach herself to Miss Greenfield, as an
assistant visitor of the poor. But she
did not get on quite to that lady's
satisfaction. She could not preach to, or
exhort, or rebuke anybody. She could
not speak to members of the opposite
sex at all. She was only found good for
reading the Bible to those who could not
read themselves, and for administering
physical relief — at least, so Miss Green-
field thought — and Hannah, in her
humility, subscribed to the opinion ; but
long afterwards they both discovered that,
though not from direct admonition, yet
from some subtle personal influence, in

230 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

more hearts than one a little germ had
been planted which, in the after time, grew
into a goodly tree.

As the spring advanced, Hannah became
worse and worse. She looked miserably-
weak and ill. Clara Wellby groaned and
bemoaned, and fussed about her looks
and her want of appetite, till Mr. Brown
himself became alarmed. Mr. Brown was
not easily alarmed, but if he once gave
way to anxiety it was apt to become
excessive. It was a long time ere he
would admit that there was anything the
matter with Hannah ; but when at last
the fact was forced upon his belief, his
nervousness lest anything should befall
this, his sole remaining child, knew no
bounds. All at once Hannah assumed in
his eyes an importance she had never
possessed before, and he discovered, just

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 231

as he feared to lose her, that she was
the light of his eyes and his sole hope
on earth. And with anxiety for her
health mingled another anxiety which he
hardly acknowledged to himself, but
which seemed occasionally to find some
expression when he spoke to Clara
Wellby.

" Girls are often delicate at Hannah's
age, are they not, Miss Wellby ? She is
just twenty-one now. Her mother was
very delicate when she was twenty-three.
Don't you think it is the spring winds?
She exposes herself too much to them.
It must be the spring winds, it cannot be
anything else ? "

" I am sure I don't know, Mr. Brown.
Hannah used not to feel the spring winds.
She is very reserved, and I sometimes think
Hannah has feelings she never mentions."

232 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS,

" Feelings ? — what kind of feelings ?
She has very proper feelings. Hannah is
a very good daughter— a very superior
girl "

" Very superior girl, Mr. Brown, but a
very sensitive girl. She behaved very
well in Sep "

" Well I — she behaved nobly, and she
must feel so herself, and she must see" —
and as he spoke there was an accent of
bitterness in the father's voice — " she
must see now that heartless scoundrel
was as unworthy of her as I always knew
him to be — running after that painted
doll, who is no more fit to hold the
candle to Hannah ; all because of her
paltry thousands. You cannot make a
silk purse out of a sow's ear, Miss
Wellby, or a gentleman out of a Smith.
Hannah must see this— -she must see it,'*

TPIE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 233

Mr. Brown repeated, with the eagerness
of a man anxious to convince himself.
" She must see, Clara, that there was
nothing but kindness for her in my
motives."

Mr. Brown had perhaps never in his
life before, or, at least, never since the
death of Mrs. Brown, been so communica-
tive of his own feelings to any human
being ; but Clara Wellby had a way of
gaining people's confidence. She was so
frank and outspoken herself, so kind-
hearted ; and, above all, nobody was
afraid of her, in spite of her sharp
tongue.

" Very likely she sees it all, Mr.
Brown. But suppose she does, I do not
see that there is anything very cheerr
ing for her in the view. Perhaps a
little change- "

234 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

" I do not see what good change could
do her. Where could she possibly be so
comfortable as at home? She must have
everything she wants, and if she has not,
let it be got for her."

" But young people want — everybody,
Mr. Brown, wants change sometimes."

" I am sure I don't ; and I thought you
agreed with me, Clara, about the restless,
unsatisfied spirit of the present day, which
is for ever driving people away from their
homes and their duties."

"So I do, Mr. Brown. All this going
to and fro upon the earth reminds me
of Satan in the days of Job; and these
snorting, murderous, fire-vomiting trains
are surely the devil's carriages. Still,
when I was young, my father and your
good father, Mr. Brown, used to take
their daughters about a little in a proper

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 235

way. I was twice in London, it was two
days' journey in the mail. We once shared
a post-chaise with your father and sister,
to go to Bath, and such a dinner we had at
the ' Green Dragon !' Ah I these were the
days ! But, at any rate, I feel sure — almost
sure — change would do Hannah good,"
said Clara, whose intuitions were generally
much more correct than her arguments.

"Well, if you think so," with desperate
resolution, "let her have a change. She
has done much for me, and I must do
something for her. I am an old man,
and miss anything I am accustomed to.
Still to miss her for a few weeks," — he
stopped and added, looking out from the
dining-room window on the churchyard,
and the great box-ottoman tombstone,
with the iron railings round it, — " I must
be there first, Clara."

236 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

" Nonsense, Mr. Brown !" said Clara,
crossly. "Nobody is going to lie there
yet awhile that I know of;" but as she
spoke there was a tear in her eye. Clara
was often cross when anything occurred
to awaken in her unusual emotions, perhaps
because laughing was at all times more
pleasant to her, and more in harmony with
her nature, than crying.

Hannah did feel a gleam of something
like pleasure when she heard she was
to go from home. It seemed to her that
it would be a relief to see no longer for
a time the old familiar objects. But
where was the delight she would once
have felt, had she known that she was
actually to behold lakes and mountains,
and the great ocean itself? Faint in
comparison was the sensation she now ex-
perienced; and the idea of the packing.

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 237

and the journey, and the strange people she
should see, was almost overwhelming ; and
thens he would think sadly. What a strange
thing life is, and how, when a wish is at
last fulfilled, the fulfilment comes when the
power to enjoy has passed away !

Of course, nobody could leave Gos-
lingford to go anywhere without the
event creating a certain amount of talk-
ing. But that Hannah Brown should
go from home, not to Buttonborough,
but actually on a trip to North Wales,
was little less puzzling and interesting
to the Goslingford world, than the ex-
istence of Stonehenge on the middle
of Salisbury Plain is to the world of
archaeologists and geologists. At first her
going was disbelieved, but her own and
Miss Wellby's announcement of the fact
placed it beyond a doubt. When some one,

238 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

too, had asked Mr. Brown about it, even
he had not denied it, but murmured
something about " spring winds," and
her mother having been delicate at Han-
nah's age.

The Brownites and the Smithites, as
was natural, took opposite views of the
causes and the propriety of Hannah leav-
ing home. If the Smithites in general
" had been only daughters with aged
fathers, they would not have left them
solitary in their old age, to seek for their
own pleasure. If they had been disap-
pointed in love, they would not have
worn the willow like Hannah Brown. It
was unladylike — it was indelicate, undig-
nified." They had apparently quite for-
gotten that not much more than half a
year ago Hannah had been heartless and
unfeeling, because she had not shown

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 239

more disappointment. Poor Hannah, it
seemed, could not hit the happy medium
in which alone lay feminine propriety ;
and it is my belief, if she had, it would
have been all the same.

My dear friends, if you have a kind
neighbour who is always considerately
pointing out your faults to yourself, as
well as to everybody else, take my advice,
and do not alter your proceedings. What-
ever you do will be wrong, simply because
it is you who do it. Your only hope is
in losing your fortune and your position,
which will naturally draw out the milk
of human kindness in the compassionate
bosom of your friendly neighbour, who
will then probably discover that " poor

is a good creature, with all his

follies," and will henceforth patronize in-
stead of censuring you, — that is, if you

240 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

show the humility becoming your fallen
fortunes.

The two elder Miss Smiths snuffed the
air very much, and the sweep of their
flounces created a greater gale than ever,
when they heard of Hannah's delicate
health and projected journey. They did
not say much, but their looks were elo-
quent enough, and seemed to proclaim how
contemptible and silly Miss Brown was, and
how differently they would have acted.
Miss Laura Victoria was the only one of the
family who spoke much on the subject, and
it was to defend Hannah Brown. She
" had not seen much of her, but she
had always liked her. Edgar would
never tell exactly what had passed be-
tween him and the Browns, but she was
quite sure it had been all that old tyrant,
Mr. Brown ; and Hannah, poor thing, had

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 241

not much spirit, but she was sorry for
her, very sorry for her ; but it was too
late now."

The Brown party, of course, upheld
both Hannah and her father. They did
not believe Hannah was wearing the
willow. Mr. Brown had said it was the
spring winds, and what was more likely,
considering she had never looked very
strong? No wonder her father was a
little anxious about her, considering she
was the last of the family. " Mr Brown
was such a fond father," Miss Clara
Wellby said ; " and as for Hannah, she
was quite astonished to hear people talk.
The girl only wanted a little change, — all
girls did now and then ; and as for
wearing the willow," said Clara, boldly,
*' I have no patience with such stuff and
nonsense. Why should she wear the

VOL. I. R

242 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS

willow? To my certain knowledge, she
might have had him if she had liked."

Clara Wellby was a woman of spirit
and of pride. She would have died ere
she would have worn the willow, and in
her love for Hannah, and in the warmth
of her Brownite zeal, she was resolved
that no one should believe that her young
friend did so either. But when she made
the above speech in the presence of Miss
Richards, that good soul looked very un-
happy, and heaved a deep sigh. It was
at a small, quiet, gossiping tea-party of
middle-aged ladies only. Clara turned
round on her like an amiable tigress.

" What are you groaning for, Harriet,
as if you were at a Wesleyan prayer-
meeting ? I am not good enough to be
guilty of a pious fraud, and I tell you,
Mr. Brown never refused his consent to

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 243

Hannah, and I maintain she might have
had him if she had liked."

As Miss Clara had a very high charac-
ter for truthfulness, neither Miss Harriet
nor any one else could doubt her after
so positive an assertion ; but no further
light on the interesting subject was to be
gained from her. Indeed, she feared her
zeal had already led her to say rather
too much. And so the Goslingford
world was left to the solution of the
puzzle presented by this new phase of the
vexed question. There appeared to be
no way of deciding it but by appeal-
ing to Edgar Smith himself; and even
the curiosity of Goslingford, inimical or
friendly as the case might be, was not
quite capable of such eflProntery.

But the Smithites were not slow to
perceive that an advantage might be

244 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

obtained from poor Clara's triumphant
assertion. If Mr. Brown had not refused
his consent, then Hannah's conduct had
really been that of a heartless jilt — quite
infamous; and on all sides arose to this
effect quite a Smithite chorus — almost
the only Smithites who did not join in
it being Mrs. Westcote and her daughter.
Mary Westcote was very certain Han-
nah Brown would have given her eyes
for Edgar Smith. She refuse him of
her own free will ! " Don't tell her."
Miss Westcote did not give herself much
concern about being consistent.

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 245

CHAPTER XIII.

NORTH WALES.

It was July before Miss Wellby and
Hannah Brown had completed their
arrangements for a trip to North
Wales — the locality which had been fixed
upon as altogether the most desirable to
visit. Miss Clara, in the affairs of ordi-
nary life, was not a slow person, but
a journey was with her, and still more
with Mr. Brown, a solemn affair, not

246 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

to be entered into without due talking,
and fussing, and running about. Then
she had to calm the fears of her friend.
Miss Harriet Richards, which, to tell the
truth, though she would not have con-
fessed it, she in some degree shared.
In the opinion of that good soul, rail-
ways were one of the crying sins of
the age. Although she was too amiable
to have left her dying testimony against
them, as did Alexander Campbell, one
of the "Men of the North," against "the
ships that keep their course in spite of
the weather — that presumptuous sin,"
yet she did not the less think them an
impatient tampering with the source of
all evil. That anyone should travel by
railway, was, in her opinion, a tempting
of Providence ; but that Hannah Brown,
who had already, as it were, been mi-

THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 247

raculously preserved in an actual, hond
fide accident, should think of again
audaciously risking her life, was almost
appalling, and she remonstrated with
Clara for leading her young friend into
temptation. The first time she did so,
Clara turned a deaf ear to her, merely
answering by a ^' humph," for, to tell the
truth, she was not without some mis-
givings herself, not precisely in a re-
ligious point of view, but she neither
liked nor approved of anything so in-
novating as trains ; he was also secretly
a little nervous about them, and she felt
a degree of uncomfortable responsibility
in having the care of poor old Mr.
Brown's only remaining child, Avith this
additional anxiety.

Now she would not for the world
have frightened old Mr. Brown, or have

248 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

deprived Hannah of the benefit she
was sure the trip would confer upon
her j but the evening after Harriet had
made her remonstrance, she remarked,
as she was drinking tea at the
Browns —

*' How I wish this had been in the
good old days, and that Hannah and
I could have gone in a post-chaise ! One
sees so much more of the country, and
one can have comfortable meals at inns,
and have one's time at one's own dis-
posal, instead of being hurried, and
bustled, and hustled by people of all
ranks, at these dreadful stations, where
you must eat your plate of wretched
cold meat so quick, it gives you indi-
gestion, while the noise and the clatter
of a couple of hundred people all talk-
ing at once is enough to deafen you

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 249

for evermore, and to addle your brains
to the end of your life."

'^ And the confusion of ranks," said
Mr. Brown, " is so detestable." There
is nothino: so levellinoj as these trains.
Nothing, in my opinion, has contributed
so much to the popular democratic
notions of the times, that the taxes
should be imposed by those who don't
pay them, and that the ignorant should
rule the educated."

" I have no doubt, Mr. Brown, it is
exactly as you say. When our aristocracy
never travelled except in a carriage and
four horses, they were much more looked
up to than they are now ; and respectable
clergymen's and lawyers' daughters were
in a very different position in a post-chaise
and pair. I suppose one could hardly
go in a post-chaise now ?"

250 THE BEOWNS AND TPIE SMITHS.

"No, you could not. I have thought
of it, Clara ; but it would not answer. If
it is necessary for Hannah to travel, she
must travel in the only way the mys-
terious course of Providence has now left
her. It is not our fault that she must
go by train, and, doubtless, God's hand will
be over her there in the future, as it has
been in the past."

Now, Clara was at once struck with
the superiority of Mr. Brown's religious
sentiments to those of Miss Richards ; so,
when that lady renewed the attack, she
was not listened to so mildly as on the
previous occasion.

" There is no other way for us to go,
Harriet ; and as to tempting Providence,
I should like to know if God is not with
us in the railway train just as much as He
is with us by our own fire-side."

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 251

" Of course He is, Clara ; but in a
different way."

'- How do you mean in a different way?
People have been killed in their own
chimney-corner before now, No, no, Har-
riet ; what is written, is written ; and what
is to be, is to be. That is your favourite
doctrine, you know."

" Oh, Clara, how you do misunderstand !
That is fatalism, not predestination."

"Well, call it what you like. All I
know is, that if we all live till next week,
it is predestined that Hannah and I set off
by railway train to North Wales. And
now, as T have thousands of things to
see to, I have no time to talk any more
nonsense on the subject, so good-bye."

It was, however, some comfort to Miss
Clara to reflect that, when they really got
into North Wales, there would be other

252 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

modes of conveyance than railway trains;
but her feelings on this point she did
not, of course, communicate to her friend
Miss Richards.

Miss Wellby and Hannah had, on the
whole, fine weather for their excursion.
It rained, of course, frequently amongst the
"Welsh mountains ; once or twice they
were prevented by mists from seeing the
finest views, and once they were wet to
the skin. Hannah bore all these contre-
temps with great equanimity ; but not so
Miss Clara. Every little accident always
fussed, and agitated, and excited that kind-
hearted creature. She was not, perhaps,
the choicest of travelling companions, and
yet there have been many worse ; for her
ill-humour never was of long duration ;
she w^as very cheerful in the intervals,
making many odd and piquant remarks;

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 253

and entirely devoted to Hannah's welfare,
though she frequently manifested this
devotion in the most despotic, and, occa-
sionally, somewhat capricious manner. At
first, the shy, timid Hannah had felt as
if she should like to sink into the earth
when Clara began to scold in every di-
rection, as if she had been at home in
Goslingford. And when she commenced to
teach the chambermaids how to make
beds, in the only way beds ought to be
made ; when she rated the waiters for
laying the tables, differing in some minute
particular from the only manner which
she conceived to be orthodox; when she
informed the landlady that inns were not
what they used to be in her time, and
more than hinted that her cook knew
nothing whatever about the composition
of a genuine old-fashioned rice-pudding —

254 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

Miss Clara's favourite dish ; in such mo-
ments as these, Hannah would have given
the world she had never left home.

Then, though Clara said she enjoyed
scenery, and indeed really appeared to
enjoy it after some fashion of her own,
it was not in Hannah's fashion. When
Hannah would have liked on some sweet
sunset evening to have sat in silence and
admired the gold, and purple, and opal
tints melting into shadows and darkness
on the mountain tops ; or to have watched,
in pleasant melancholy, the grey mists
stealing up the valleys, or to have gazed
at the moon as she rose over the shoulder
of the hill, and bathed herself in the dews
of the summer night; then, precisely it
was that Miss Clara became most talkative.
All pleasure or happiness, from whatsoever
source derived, made Miss Clara loqua-

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 255

cious, and she could not believe that any-
one was pleased or happy who sat silent.
That " Speech is silvern, and Silence is
golden," was far indeed from being the
creed of Miss Clara Wellby.

" You don't seem to admire the view,
Hannah. Dear me ! I should have ex-
pected you to fall into raptures with these
hills, and those fine clouds there in the
west. Even I, who do not pretend to
have such a turn for these things as you
have, say a great deal more about them
than you do. I should have thought
you would have exhausted the dictionary
in praising them, and hardly have been
able to find words to express your ad-
miration."

" I cannot find words, Aunt Clara,"
said Hannah, in mild exculpation, but
her meaning was lost on her companion ;

256 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

"but you must not fancy I am not en-
joying myself, for indeed I am, I feel so
much stronger and better."

And Miss Wellby was consoled, though,
at the same time, a little provoked by
what she considered Hannah's undemon-
strative manner. Sometimes Hannah
would have spoken, would have quoted
some line of poetry, or even have given
utterance to some romantic sentiment of
her own, suggested by all the novelty and
beauty, had she not been quite certain
that, according to her humour, Miss
Clara would either have laughed at her.
cut her short with a witticism, or in-
formed her that '' she was thankful to
say she knew nothing about poetry.
Eeal life was enough for her."

Still, on the whole, it may be doubted
if Hannah, considering the purpose for

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 257

which she went, could have had a better
companion. Even the trifling anxieties
and petty miseries caused her by Clara's
eccentricities did her good, and at last
even amused her. This, of course, to
romantic readers, if any such indeed have
followed me so far in my prosaic tale,
must appear very uninteresting in Hannah
Brown. But then, you see, Hannah Brown
was — Hannah Brown, and not Lady
Clarinda Capulet, or Lady Meliora Mon-
tague. Doubtless, if she had been one of
these exalted damsels, she would have
found poor Miss Clara's uncongeniality
unbearable rather than amusing. Her
soul would have withered, her spirits
have been oppressed, she would have
derived no enjoyment from the mountain
scenery, she would have apostrophised
solitude, she would have lost her appe-
VOL. I. s

258 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

tite ; impatience, if not concealment, would
have preyed on her damask cheek, and
she would have returned home to her
flinty-hearted father, pining away with
green and yellow melancholy. But then
Hannah Brown's father, though in one
respect his conduct had been worthy of
a parent Montague or a parent Capulet —
though he was actually an attorney, or
perhaps, because he was an attorney, and
not my Lord Capulet or Baron Mon-
tague— was not flinty-hearted. He loved
his daughter Hannah, I do not say with
no common love, — for, thank God, such
love is not very uncommon, — but he
loved her with a father's love, that love
which the Great Father of all has em-
ployed as a type of His own ; and, in spite
of all the sufi*ering he had caused her,
Hannah knew it. She was anxious to be

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 259

well and happy, for his sake and her own
too. Romantic as she was in some re-
spects, it had never struck her that it
would be more interesting or desirable to
die, or to be miserable, than to be in
good health or in tolerable spirits. So she
looked at the bright side of Miss Clara —
and there really was a very bright side
to look at — and, in spite of their
unsuitableness in some things, they got
on very well together on the whole, ^
and enjoyed themselves according to their
different temperaments. The rose came
back to Hannah's cheek, the light to her
eye, and elasticity to her step. Miss
Clara Wellby's scheme had succeeded.

s2

260 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

CHAPTER XIV.

A THUNDERSTORM,

There was one pretty valley in North
Wales, which, so much smitten were they
with its beauties, Miss Wellby and Hannah
had made up their minds to revisit
and spend a week in before their return
home. It was a locality not much
frequented by ordinary tourists, as it
diverged considerably from the main-road,
"as quiet and secluded," said Hannah,

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 261

*' as Llangollen must have been when
Lady Eleanor Butler and Miss Ponsonby
first took up their abode there."

"But don't expect me, Hannah," said
Miss Clara, "to be either a Lady Eleanor
or a Miss Ponsonby. You know I have
no turn for romantic seclusion. Moun-
tains may be very well, but men and
women are better. I wonder how often
Lady Eleanor and her friend quarrelled !"

"Never, I should think, Aunt Clara, or
they would not have remained so long
together "

" Impossible, my dear ; I tell you they
must have quarrelled. Only fancy Harriet
Richards and me living alone together
in a Welsh valley!"

Hannah burst into the heartiest laugh
she had had for many a day.

"Indeed, Aunt Clara, I cannot fancy it."

262 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

" So you are laughing at me and poor
Harriet, you monkey I Well, it does
me good to hear you laugh, and I shall
be contented to act the part of the ro-
mantic friend here with you for a
week.'*

It was on a hot and sultry Saturday
that the travellers arrived at Llan Gwdd
and took up their abode in a pretty
little cottage where they had previously
engaged lodgings. It was almost the
only place in the tiny village where
they could have been accommodated.
A pretty little cottage it was, standing
under a gorse-clad hill, with a stream
tumbling and brawling over a rocky
bed a few paces in front, and a few
fine beech trees overhanging the stream
on the opposite bank. Some cottages
were scattered at short distances about

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 263

the vale, and on a green knoll further
down the stream, stood the little Welsh
church, not architectural, certainly, but
possessing, in spite of its want of taste —
to the perversely poetic mind — a certain
beauty from its associations with village
piety and purity, and with that rural sim-
plicity which minds, as I have said, per-
versely poetic, insist on connecting with
seclusion and interesting scenery. Such
people — and Hannah Brown, in spite of
her plebeian name and common-place as-
sociations, was one of these — do not
like to be told that wickedness like good-
ness has no locality — that the same
evil passions rage in the " peaceful
vale," as in the "wicked" city. I can
only say, may such persons be long
before their eyes are opened ! It is
not likely they will take a high rank

264 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

among political economists, whatever
they may do among social reformers.
And if you, my dear reader, wonder
what I mean by these last few words,
I can only say, that to do moral
good to our neighbours, it is more ne-
cessary to believe in the good already in
them than to know of the evil. A
paradox, you will say, but what are life
and morality, and even Christianity, but
paradoxes ?

And so Hannah Brown thought what
a lovely village was Llan Gwdd, and what
an innocent, peaceful race must be its
inhabitants, and how sweetly the life of
the village pastor must there glide away I
Surely there could be no Brown and
Smith factions in Llan Gwdd.

Hannah and Miss Clara, having had
an early tea, set out, at the expressed

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 265

wish of the former, on a walk to the
churchyard. The landlady assured them
that, unless they climbed to the summit
of one of the hills, there was not a finer
view in the whole vale than from the
church door. As they walked thither,
Clara criticising the untidy appearance
of the cottage doors, and contrasting
them unfavourably with those of the
villages round Goslingford, and Hannah
endeavouring, as far as possible, to be
blind to all defects, and even defending
some of them as picturesque, neither of
them observed what packs of heavy
clouds were beginning to gather, or how
a breeze had commenced to rush through
the hitherto motionless foliage, turning
up the backs of the leaves with a low,
flapping sound.

" Picturesque, Hannah ! Don't tell me

266 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

that a dirty broken wheelbarrow is half
as pretty in front of a cottage as a few
nice gillyflowers and marigolds."

^' I did not say it was as pretty — I
only said "

" I have a great mind, Hannah, to go
and tell that lazy high-cheek-boned -
looking Welshman that he ought to be
ashamed to stand there smoking his
pipe, and looking contentedly at all that
rubbish, instead of removing it at once."

"Oh, no. Aunt Clara, pray don't. It
will only "

Here Hannah was interrupted by a peal
of thunder.

"Thunder!" cried Clara. "Let us go
home at once."

" It would not take us three minutes
longer. Aunt Clara, just to go to the
church door, as we are here. Do, Aunt

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 267

Clara ! The view will be so very fine,
with these magnificent lights and shadows."

" Lights and shadows ! It will be all
shadows in a minute, I am thinking.
But, perhaps, as dirt is picturesque, wet
clothes are romantic."

But Hannah coaxed, and Miss Wellby
always yielded when she was coaxed,
even against her better judgment.

They had almost reached the church
door, and Hannah had just turned round
to admire a gigantic black shadow on
the shoulder of the opposite hill, while
the summit stood out from it in preter-
natural light, when a vivid flash of
forked lightning from the clouds was
immediately succeeded by a tremendous
peal of thunder.

" There now, Hannah ! Did not I tell
you? — and these great drops of rain —

268 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. ;

hail, I declare. We shall be wet to
the skin, and you will catch your
death with cold. Oh, what will your
father say ? I shall never forgive my-
self. You silly child, to insist on coming
up here in a thunderstorm!" And tears
of vexation stood in Miss Clara's eyes.

"But we should not have had time
to get back."

" Time I Don't talk nonsense, Hannah.
How can you be so provokingly cool ?"

" Indeed, Aunt Clara, I am very hot."

" All the worse ! You will have a
fever, or you will be struck with light-
ning. Don't go near the tree, I say ; "
and Miss Clara, looking wildly about
for shelter, seized the handle of the
church door, and shook it as if she
would break the door open.

To her surprise it yielded to her

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 269

grasp, and she and Hannah hastily sought
the little sanctuary it offered from the
rage of the storm. They had not closed
the door when Hannah shrank shyly
back as she perceived a gentleman — evi-
dently the clergyman himself — at a short
distance, and hastening towards them.

" I beg pardon," said Miss Wellby,
smoothing her ruffled plumage, " but
we were afraid of being struck by light-
ning."

" Pray make no apology. I am only
glad I happened to be in the church,
as otherwise the door would have been
locked."

The speaker was a very mild, very
pale young man, with very fine dark
eyes, and that air of melancholy which
by young ladies of a romantic tempera-
ment is considered "interesting." He

270 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

had too a mild, placid voice, and
a gentle, dreamy manner. He was not
exactly Miss Clara's type either of man
or clergyman ; still she recognised in
him a gentleman, and Miss Clara was
always glad to have anyone to speak
to. So, while the storm lasted, she
related to him, in her own voluble
style, how they had been touring, how
they had walked up to see the view, and
had been caught in the storm; descant-
ing on her own nervousness about a
thunderstorm, her responsibility in having
the care of Hannah, her anxiety on her
account, and her earnest desire to take
her home to her father, whose only
child she was, in good health.

The young clergyman listened politely,
but, Hannah could not help fancying, a
little absently, and Hannah wished fer-

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 271

vently that Miss Clara were a little
less eccentric. As Miss Wellby had
spoken of her, he had glanced at her
once or twice, and she had coloured deeply
to find herself made the subject of con-
versation.

" This is not a very pretty church,"
at last said Miss Clara.

"No," he replied, becoming a little
animated, but still in a subdued way ;
"it is sadly wanting in everything eccle-
siastical. I should be quite unhappy if
I did not hope to see it improved. It
is the object I live for."

"And to improve the people, too."

He looked at her with some interest.
"Yes; but the one object is included
in the other. As the worshippers, so the
temple. I have nothing else to live for."

" Indeed," said Hannah, sympathisingly.

272 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

as sympathy seemed expected, but feeling
awkward, and not knowing what else to
say. Miss Wellby, however, was restrained
by no such scruples, and asked, point
blank —

'' What do you mean ? "

" I mean that she who was the
partner of all my cares, the angel of
my life, lies under the turf there out-
side— the chancel I was going to say —
but I mean where the chancel ought
to be. Her baby, too, is with her,
and I have nothing left but to go on
my work alone. I visit her grave every
day."

"Then you are very wrong. That
kind of sorrow is not healthy. I don't
approve of such sentimentalism."

Hannah looked deprecatingly at the
young clergyman. Her horror lest he

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 273

should be offended at Miss Clara's speech,
took away for the moment all shyness on
her own account. But he only smiled
faintly, with a sort of amiable melan-
choly towards Hannah, as much as to
say—

" I don't expect to be comprehended by
everybody."

The storm had now abated, and though
the trees dripped, and the roads ran
like water-courses, the ladies thought it
better to make the best of their way
to their lodgings. The young clergy-
man politely offered to go and fetch um-
brellas and goloshes — an offer which they
declined with many thanks. He then
asked permission to call on them in the
beginning of the week — a permission which
they gladly accorded.

" I declare, Hannah," said Miss Clara,

VOL. I. T

274 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

as they plunged on their way, "we have
had quite an adventure. What a remark-
ably handsome, interesting young man !
and so polite and gentlemanly."

" I rather wonder," said Hannah, *' how
he could speak of his dead wife and his
innermost feelings to such strangers."

" I daresay he has nobody else to speak
to about them. I don't approve, how-
ever, of his visiting her grave in that
way ; it is quite morbid. People should
not brood and sentimentalise over their
sorrows, Hannah, as I have often told
you. I will try to cure him as I have
cured you, that is, if he is worth curing.
I will ask the landlady about him."

The landlady, who was something of
a gossiping body, was nothing loth to
communicate, in her broken English, all
she knew and all she thought about Mr.

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 275

Edwards. " He had been their parson now
for five years. They had had a very
different kind of parson before he came,
a very good-natured man, and not at
all proud. He took all his meals with
Molly Jones in the kitchen, and his
glass of beer and his pipe with anybody
in the parish. To be sure he was often
too late for church, and sometimes there
was on wet days no service at all ; and
he did not go to see people ill of bad fevers,
like Parson Edwards, but he were a
very good-natured man for all that.
But everything were changed when Parson
Edwards came. He seemed so grandly
dressed, and so high and mighty at first,
nobody liked him. He had his Welsh
service and his English service regular
every Sunday. He had the church made
grand, and all the rubbish cleared away

T 2

276 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

at his own expense, though he was not
rich ; and he preached every Sunday
against the Methodists, and the Ranters,
and the Mormonites, and said how as
there was but one true church; and
folks said he was a Jesuit, and prayed
to an image ; and the dissenters said he
had the mark of the beast, and I know
not what ; but he's a kind gentleman in
sickness, and visits the sick at any hour
of the day or night, and brings down
nice things, and so did Mrs. Edwards, poor
thing ! He brought her home here, such
a sweet pretty bride, only two years ago,
and she played on the — it is too
hard a name for me — in the church,
and sang so sweet. And then the baby
was born, — and she died of the
childbed fever,- — and he buried the child
a fortnight after the wife. And he was,

THE BROWNS AND THE SiMITHS. 277

they say, like to have gone out of his
mind at first. And then he put up a
fine carved stone to her — a very idola-
trous thing, the Ranters say, with a
cross on it, and a round thing, and a
three-sided thing, which all mean some-
thing Popish ; andjjt he goes to pray there
every day, and he visits more than ever,
and he's always a-talking of his wife."

"Is he rich?" asked Miss Clara.

" No, ma'am — not as I knows of.
He is a gentleman born, and can trace
his family, they say, in the female line,
to Owen Glyndwr."

Both the ladies were much interested
in this narrative, though Miss Clara
shook her head over the cross on the
tombstone, and thought it almost as
Popish as the Ranters did. She feared
Mr. Edwards was a " Puseyite."

278 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

Hannah still thought it odd he should
have spoken to strangers about his feel-
ings, but she did not doubt, now, that
his grief had been sincere ; and she be-
gan to meditate on the differences in
character. Miss Clara still maintained
there was nothing od(ji in it ; she liked
outspoken people, for her part.

THE BROWNS AND THE SMIIHS. 279

CHAPTER XV.

THE WELSH PARSON.

The day after the thunderstorm, which
was Sunday, proved fine. Miss Clara
and her young friend attended English
service in the little church. Mr. Edwards
did the whole duty. He read well, but
in rather a melancholy manner ; and he
preached also. Miss Clara declared, in a
very melancholy strain. Hannah liked
the sermon ; there was something sooth-

280 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

ing in it, and in the not unmelodious
cadence of the preacher's voice. Hannah
felt as she walked out of the simple
little church, beneath the bright summer
sky and under the golden hills, that it
was altogether, in spite of the inferiority
of the building, not only more romantic
than the church at Goslingford, but that,
at that moment, it seemed more favour-
able to the devotional feelings. The
high-crowned hats of the Welshwomen
seemed more in harmony with pious
thoughts, than the gay bonnets and fine
flowers of Miss Westcote and the Miss
Splints. But remember, reader, I do
not quite uphold Hannah in this senti-
ment. It is the business of religion to
convert the outward things of life into its
own essence, and not to be converted by
them. If this were generally recognised.

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 281

what floods of useless discussion might
we be spared with regard to what is
worldly or unworldly. Sumptuary laws
are at all times odious, and never more
so than when enforced by religious pe-
nalties. There is no essential connection
between dinginess and holiness, and arti-
ficial flowers even are not always the in-
signia of candidates for the infernal regions.
Perhaps, after all, there might have been
as much jealousy between Mary Jones and
Elizabeth Roberts about their high-crowned
hats and full borders, as between Miss
Westcote and Miss Julietta Smith about
their Buttonborough bonnets and French
flowers. However, be that as it may, it
pleased Hannah, like many other people,
to look at village life in its poetic aspect.
Hannah's life had hitherto been but
country-town life, and everybody knows

282 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

how that is the most prosaic of all forms
of existence. Fashionable life in a
great city or in a foreign town, with
lords and ladies making love in blank
verse — or pastoral life, with village maidens
and rustic swains

"Behind the hawthorn in the dale,"

pouring out the same tale with the
untutored eloquence of simplicity — has
so much more to attract the imagination
of those who have not yet discovered
that all romance lies in the heart and all
greatness in the soul. True, Hannah had
discovered that Smiths and Browns in
their every-day bourgeois sphere could be
as romantically unreasonable and as perti-
naciously ill-tempered as any Montague
or Capulet in Verona. She had, to
some extent, discovered painfully the
romance there is in commonplace things,

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 283

but she had not yet discovered the com-
monplace there is in romantic things.

Early on Monday Mr. Edwards called,
as he had promised. He was exactly
what young ladies in country towns call
an "interesting young man," and if des-
tiny and a bishop had licensed him to
a country town curacy, half the young
ladies of the place would immediately
have been smitten with a zeal for church
principles and a fondness for ecclesiastical
needle-work. Even Hannah could not
help thinking how the Miss Splints would
have raved about him, and how dissent
and chapel-going would have been more
odious than ever to the Miss Smiths. I
will not say what even Hannah herself
might have thought and felt in former
days ; but at this moment she still pre-
ferred blue eyes to black, a moustache to

284 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

a shaven lip, and L'AUegro to II Pense-
roso. She could not, however, but ac-
knowledge that the young Welshman was
very agreeable, and seemed very amiable.
He quite won Miss Clara's heart by the
open and confidential manner in which
he spoke to her.

She soon discovered his whole history, and
she was equally communicative in her turn.
He offered to take them to all the best
walks and finest points of view, and he said
what a treat it was to him, in his loneliness
and seclusion, to have the society of two
educated persons, and more especially edu-
cated ladies. He generally addressed Miss
Wellby, but Hannah had always a con-
sciousness that what he said was even
more especially meant for her. Miss Well-
by invited him to return to early tea in
the evening, and afterwards to take a walk.

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 285

As soon as he was gone, Miss Clara
was loud in his praise.

" Such a charming — such a handsome
young man ! So devoted — so gentleman-
like ! She had heard of his family long
ago, and knew them to be most respect-
ably, indeed, highly connected. She was
sure there was nobody in Goslingford for
a moment to be compared with him."

To this speech Hannah made no rejoin-
der, but Miss Clara fancied she distin-
guished a scarcely audible sigh. This sigh
threw her into rather a bad humour,
both with Hannah and herself, and she
sat silent and moody for some time,
returning to all her companion's attempts
at conversation merely monosyllabic an-
swers. At last she appeared to make a
sudden resolution, and all at once began
to talk and harangue in her natural
lively, rambling way.

286 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

Mr. Edwards came to tea, not only
that night, but every night while the
two ladies remained — and they prolonged
their stay a whole week beyond the time
they had originally intended. Every day
the young parson stood higher and
higher in Miss Clara's good opinion. Not
that by any means they agreed about
everything. Miss Wellby scolded the
young man for his Tractarianism, and
they had many arguments on the subject,
if those could be called arguments which
consisted in banter and declamation on
the one side, and quietly begging the
question on the other. Miss Clara did
not find Mr. Edwards, as an antagonist,
quite so easy to demolish as Miss Harriet
Richards. Hannah took little share in
the controversy, though Mr. Edwards
sometimes appealed to her in words, and

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 287

still often er in looks, but she generally
replied that she was no polemic.

" I should not have thought you were,
Miss Brown ; but I should think — I am
sure you must have a feeling for the
beauty of holiness."

" I trust I have, Mr. Edwards ; but
surely the beauty of holiness consists
rather in the charity which suffers long
and is kind, than in ceremonies or deco-
rations."

" Oh ! Miss Brown," said the young

man, looking much hurt. "You can-
not surely suppose that I think other-
wise." f

Hannah coloured up with vexation.

" Forgive me," she said, "if I
seemed to insinuate that you did, for
indeed I do not think so. I have
heard and seen too much of your
work in this parish."

288 THE BKOWNS AND THE SMITHS.

Mr. Edwards said nothing, but he
looked straight at Hannah, intensely-
gratified — so intensely gratified that she
felt quite annoyed, and passed the rest
of the evening in perfect silence. As
for Miss Clara, she seemed to think
Hannah had gained a complete victory
on their side of the question, and made
up, by her liveliness and talkativeness,
for her young friend's silence. Mr.
Edwards, too, seemed in excellent
spirits ; but the argument appeared,
for the time, to have lost all interest
for him, and he replied to Miss
Wellby almost at random.

During the latter part of their stay
at Llan Gwdd, the young parson
talked much less sadly than he had
done during the earlier part of their
visit. He even seemed to admit that

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 289

there might be such a thing as conso-
lation, and a faint possibility that, even
for him, the world might not be a
wilderness; or, if it was a wilderness,
that an occasional wild-flower might
blossom by the wayside.

"We have done him a great deal of
good, Hannah, I think," said Miss
Wellby. "He looks as well and as
happy again as when we came. What
a very charming and agreeable young
man he is — and so gentlemanly ! One
sees very few such."

" Do you think so ? '*

" Don't you ? I am sure there is
nobody to be compared with him in
Goslingford."

"I don't know that. Aunt Clara."

" But I know it, Hannah, and I
have seen much more of the world

VOL. I, ji U

290 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

than you have. And then, what a
heart he seems to have ! What a
hitsband he seems to have been ! And
what polite manners he has ! How kind
of him to bring you such a pretty
bouquet every daj^, ever since he heard
you say you were fond of flowers ! "

'' I think," said Hannah, " he had
better have strewed them on his wife's
grave."

" Hannah, you are a goose ! — and
very unjust, and very unreasonable. I
have no respect for a man, or any-
body else, who breaks his heart."

"You will not require to despise
many men on that account, Aunt
Clara," said Hannah, with unwonted
bitterness. " Men don't break their
hearts, or, if they do, the fracture is
easily repaired."

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 291

*' So much the better, Hannah. I
see nothing but sin in wilful misery."

"But misery and constancy are not
the same thing."

"No, the contrary thing, of course,
when people still have their sweet-
hearts and wives ; but when they have
lost them, what is miserable constancy
but constant misery ? " And Miss Clara
turned away with the air of having
exhausted all that was to be said on
the subject.

Hannah said no more then, but the
next morning she expressed herself not
sorry that their sojourn at Llan Gwdd
now drew to a close. She "felt quite
well again, and should be glad to be
at home."

" Have you not enjoyed yourself here,
then ? " asked Clara, sharply.

U2

292 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

"Very much indeed."

"Then I cannot understand why you
should wish to go. Girls are so
fidgety, and never know their own
minds.''

Hannah made no answer, but thought
she knew her own mind very well.
Miss Wellby hardly recovered her good
humour till Mr. Edwards arrived to
tea, and to take his farewell walk with
them.

THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS. 293

CHAPTER XVI.

FAREWELLS.

The Reverend Edward Edwards was
looking even handsomer than usual.
Some emotion, not unlike excitement,
brightened his fine dark eyes, and there
was an interesting mixture of melan-
choly and animation in his manner.
He looked just the man for a lady-
killer. But the Rev. Edward Edwards
hardly knew his own powers, and he

294 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

had the great disadvantage of being
himself very susceptible. To be in love
yourself generally lessens your chance of
making another in love with you, per-
haps because we all prefer that which
is difficult of attainment. A woman
without a heart is the most likely wo-
man to have a dozen lovers — a dozen
rivals for that which does not exist.

Fortunately for himself, Mr. Edwards
hitherto had not had much opportunity
for exciting the admiration of the other
sex. He was a younger son of a Welsh
squire of decayed fortunes, and had been
educated in retirement almost as great as
that which was now his lot. In early
life he had been sent to Lampeter College,
where he had almost immediately formed
an attachment to the lady who afterwards
became his wife. Through her father's

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 295

interest he had obtained the living of
Llan Gwdd, and as soon as he had scraped
together enough to furnish his house, they
were married. Since her death, up to the
present time, he had not once seen the
face of any woman beyond the pastoral
Mollys and Jennys of his flock, and he
had persuaded himself that he did not
wish to see the face of one. In his own
language, his heart was " wedded to the
grave." One might infer, however, from
the eagerness with which he had sought '
the society of the two stranger ladies, that
he was not quite dead to female charms,
and to-night especially he looked so
animated, that one would never have
guessed that he was an inconsolable
widower. It was a very fine evening,
the days were yet long, and as tea
was primitively early (that is, if his-

296 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

tory will permit me the mention of the
meal as primitive at all), and there
was plenty of daylight yet to come,
Mr. Edwards proposed that they should
spend this their last evening in climb-
ing to the top of a high hill which
they had not yet mounted, and from
which he said there was a magnificent
view. Miss Clara did not in a gene-
ral way like climbing hills. She made,
however, no objection on this occasion,
merely remarking, '^ if they dropped her
on the way up, she hoped they would
pick her up on the way down again."

The hill was skirted at the base by
a wood, through which the path lay,
and there was a broad green track
higher up through the gorse, the deep
golden hue of which showed even more
brilliantly when contrasted with the woods

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 297

below. Miss Clara talked and grumbled
through the beech woods ; but her
grumbling to-night seemed more for a
joke than in real earnest. " Why did
people climb hills ? For her part, she
liked level ground, and saw nothing
charming in being red-faced and pant-
ing. Hills were much prettier to look
at than to look from, and she had no
idea of running the risk of a fit of
apoplexy that she might look upon a
fog on the one hand, and on the other
a country for all the world like a large
tract of village allotments. So with
your leave, my young friends, I will
sit down on this stump till you come
back. My legs and my lungs are both
older than yours.''

" Then, Aunt Clara, we will not go
either. Let us go where you can ac-

298 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

company us. Any other view will do
as well. They are all pretty."

As Hannah spoke, the young clergy-
man's face, which I have before noticed
as so unusually beaming, suddenly fell
many degrees of the physiognomical
barometer, and his voice betrayed his
vexation.

" I thought you said you should like
it so much, and I have watched for
days for a suitable evening, and to-night
it is neither foggy nor hot."

"Well, well," said Miss Clara, "I
will drag up my old legs if you will
not go without me, though I have a
long journey to-morrow."

" No, no. Aunt Clara, you have taken
enough fatigue for me already. I will
go to the top of the hill if Mr. Edwards
really cares about it."

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 299

But as Hannah spoke she could not
conceal a slight accent of annoyance.
He answered quickly, without a shade
of ill- humour, but making no attempt
to conceal his mortification —

''If it ^ives you no pleasure, Miss
Brown, it will give me none. I thought
it would have pleased you."

Poor Hannah felt very ungrateful, for
she remembered well having expressed
a strong wish to climb this very hill,
and how kindly he had promised to
watch for a good opportunity for her.

" You are very kind," she said, peni-
tently ; " and I should like extremely
to see the fine view, if Aunt Clara does
not mind."

His face cleared up a little, though
it was far indeed from having the look
of entire satisfaction it had had before.

300 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

They set off in silence. Hannah did
not see how she could have avoided
going, and yet she had a sense of
something like guilt on her conscience
because she had gone. She was neither
hard-hearted nor soft-hearted enough to
act quite justly towards the Rev. Edward
Edwards, and she was somewhat angry
both with him and with herself ; but
as they walked up the hill, the glory
of the evening and the beauty of the
prospect were not long in having a
soothing influence. Then Mr. Edwards'
manner was so gentle and unobtrusive,
she could not but feel softened towards
him, particularly as he had done no-
thing to merit her displeasure, but the
reverse. She therefore admired the view
and the sinking sun, and acknowledged
that there could not have been a finer

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 301

evening for such a walk. And the
young parson looked happy again ; and,
recovering his usual conversational powers,
he quoted sentimental poetry, and spoke
of the pleasures of sympathy in his
usual style. Time was when Hannah
might have thought this charming ; but,
with characteristic human perversity, she
did not think so now. As they stood
at the top of the hill all alone, by one
of those unaccountable flashes of memory
which, we know not why, make past
scenes seem all at once more real than
present ones, Hannah seemed transported
in spirit to the garden at thg Splints,
where she had walked with Edgar
Smith on the memorable evening of Mr.
Frederick Splint's birthday. It was not
nearly so romantic a scene as the pre-
sent, nor was Edgar Smith, with his

302 THE BEOWNS AND THE SMITHS.

sensible, self-satisfied, resolute counte-
nance, half so like a hero of romance,
as the pale, dark- eyed, melancholy young
widower. But then the romance of the
heart is not always the romance of
conventionalities. But be that as it may,
the recollection was an unfortunate one
for Mr. Edwards. And when he said —

" I shall treasure up the memory of
this evening to cheer me through the
solitary ones I see in prospect. They
were sad enough before 3^ou came, Miss
Brown, but I shall hardly know how
to bear them when you are gone."

She ansjvered —

"As a way of passing the time, you
will no doubt miss us ; but the sadness
you feel, could, I think, be made nei-
ther greater nor less by the society of
so recent acquaintances.'*

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 303

"I am hurt that you should say
so, Miss Brown ; you then will never
think of these to me happy even-
mgs r

"Yes I shall; but I meant, you must
have memories of much deeper in-
terest."

" You do not believe then in conso-
lation?"

She was saved the difficulty of an-
swering by the appearance of Miss Clara,
who, impatient of solitude, had climbed
part of the way to meet them.

As Mr. Edwards walked home that night
to his little parsonage, and a sense of its
loneliness smote upon him, his thoughts
certainly were ]iot more of the dead
than of the living. He wished he had
not said so much about his loss being
irreparable. His was not the grief cer-

304 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

tainly, however luuch lie had once thought
so, to which

" Life nothing brighter or darker can bring."

Indeed I doubt if there can be any
such grief, except remorse.

It rained the next morning when the
Welsh car stopped at the door of their
little lodging to convey the two . ladies
to the nearest railway station. From
thence it was several hours' journey to
Buttonborough, and, as the reader knows,
still further to Goslingford. But in spite
of the rain, they found Mr. Edwards
standing under a tree, just where the
road to the village turned in to the
highway, and half a mile from the par-
sonage, with a large umbrella in one
hand, and a bouquet of flowers in the
other.

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 305

" I could not think of letting you go,"
he said, "without saying farewell. Will
you accept these as a little remembrance
of Llan Gwdd?" and he extended the
bouquet to Hannah.

It seemed impossible to refuse it, after
he had taken so much trouble, and yet
Hannah felt so loth to accept it, that it
gave an air of ungracious embarrass-
ment to her manner. Mr. Edwards
sighed audibly, and seemed quite heed- .
less of the rain which poured in torrents
on his unprotected person, as he had
now lowered the umbrella.

"You are getting wet through," cried
Miss Clara.

"So much the better," caid he, de-
spondingly; "what does it signify what
becomes of me ? "

" Oh, Mr. Edwards !" cried Hannah ; and

VOL. I. X

306 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

then added, from a nervous desire to say
something, " they are very pretty flowers."

"Will you remember me at least till
they fade, Miss Brown ? " he said.

*^ My memory," said Hannah, " is not
so short." But her tone of reproof was
lost in a blast of wind and rain. He mere-
ly understood she would remember him.

"And now," said Miss Clara, "as I
don't wish to be drowned, good-bye,
and God bless you, Mr. Edwards ; I shall
always be happy to see you."

" Farewell," he said, " dear friend, dear
Miss Clara;" but he did not speak to
Hannah, he merely looked at her.

" Come, come," cried Miss Clara, scold-
ing, "it is too wet and cold to be
pathetic ; go on, driver." But as she
spoke, there was a tear in her eye.

"The nicest young man I ever met,"

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 307

said Miss Wellby, as they drove on, in
spite of his crosses and his scrapings. \

"Now, Hannah, don't be a goose, and
throw away the* substance for the shadow,
like the dog in the fable."

"Mr. Edwards' memory is shorter than
mine," said Hannah, again returning to
the old idea.

"You mean, my dear, Mr. Edwards
is more submissive to the will of Pro-
vidence, and more ready to make the^
best of things."

Hannah said nothing ; but Miss Clara's
was, to say the least, a new way of
putting it, and Hannah, like most of
Miss Wellby's friends, was obliged to
acknowledge, at times, that that lady's
random shots went as straight to the
mark as if they had been aimed with
the utmost precision.

308 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

My dear reader, if you are like
Hannah, one whose thoughts cling to
the past, and in whom memory is
stronger than hope, yoil will, perhaps,
say there is nothing so noble as con-
stancy; but if, on the contrary, you are
an admirer of strong common sense, and
take a practical, I don't say a worldly,
view of the advantages and disadvan-
tages of life, you will say that true
wisdom and true religion really lie in
Miss Clara's theory of making the best
of things. If you ask me what I
think, what can I answer, but confess
that, according to my mood, I have
sometimes been of the one opinion and
sometimes of the other; and so I sus-
pect had Miss Clara, who, like most
preachers, had not, at all times acted
up to her own sermons. But let us

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 309

not blame either Miss Clara or the
preachers.

What sort of sermons would these
be, whose docrtrine corresponded with
the doings of the best of men ? It
is my belief that the best preachers
are always most powerful when they
preach on their own weik points.

Hannah, as we know, had a humble
mind, and, though Miss Wellby's speech
had no effect — what speeches ever have?.
— in arguing her out of her own feel-
ings, it made her think a little more
charitably of Mr. Edwards, and feel a
little remorseful towards him. And
then she said to herself —

^' It is no matter, I shall never see him
again. Men cannot feel like women.
After all, he cannot help being a man."

And kind-hearted, irritable Miss Clara

310 THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS.

thought of how sadly the poor young
clergyman would go home in the drip-
ping rain, and sit down, wet perhaps,
in his lonely study, and she felt very
cross with Hannah.

She relented towards her, however,
long before they reached Goslingford, or
even Buttonborough. All irritable feel-
inofs were mero-ed in benevolent delio-ht
at the notion of restoring Hannah to
her father in perfect health, and, in
intense satisfaction, the root of which
did not, perhaps, lie in benevolence,
that such a return was a complete
triumph over the Smithites. And then
came the qualifying reflection :

"I wish she had only had sense and
spirit enough to show that flirting fel-
low what a much better match she
could make. It shows what he is, that

THE BROWNS AND THE SMITHS. 311

he could ever tliink of Mary Westcote
after Hannah Brown," thought Miss
Clara, angrily, and quite oblivious that,
after all, Edgar Smith was only doing
what she advised Hannah to do —
making the best of things.

END OF VOL, I.

E. GARDNER, PKINTER, GLOUCESTER STREET, KEGENT's PARK.

m